SPEECHES 


AND 


LITERARY 
CONTRIBUTIONS 

AT  FOURSCORE  AND  FOUR 


CHAUNCEY  M,  DEPEW 


GIFT   OF 

M*  £>epe 


SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES 


SPEECHES  AND 
LITERARY  CONTRIBUTIONS 

AT  FOURSCORE  AND  FOUR 


BY 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW 


NEW  YORK:  1918 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

My  Views  of  Live 9 

Speech  at  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Mon- 
tauk,  Club  of  Brooklyn,  in  Celebration  of  Mr.  Depew's 
Eighty-second  Birthday,  April  29,  1916 11 

Speech  at  the  Twenty-sixth  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Mon- 
tauk  Club  of  Brooklyn,  in  Celebration  of  Mr.  Depew's 
Eighty-third  Birthday,  April  28,  1917  45 

Speech  at  the  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Celebration  of  the 
Montauk  Club  of  Brooklyn,  in  Honor  of  Mr.  Depew's 
Eighty-fourth  Birthday,  April  27,  1918 74 

Speech  telephoned  from  New  York  City  to  Seattle, 
Wash.,  May  31,  1916.  Distance  3,184  Miles  . .  . .  98 

Speech  at  the  Yale  Alumni  Luncheon,  Yale  University 
Commencement,  June,  1916 100 

Address  during  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  the  Grant 
ing  of  the  first  Charter  to  the  Village  of  Peekskill,  N. 
Y.,  July  2,  3  and  4,  1916  105 

Speech  at  the  National  Fertilizer  Banquet,  Hot  Springs, 
Va.,  July  12,  1916 137 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Twilight  Club  to  Mr. 
Otis  Skinner,  Hotel  Biltmore,  New  York,  October 
29,1916  147 

Speech  at  the  Luncheon  given  by  the  Pilgrims  Society  to 
the  Right  Reverend  Huyshe  Wolcott  Yeatman-Biggs, 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  England,  November  6,  1916  . .  158 

Address  before  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  on 
the  Art  of  Growing  Older  and  the  Value  of  Interest  in 
Public  Life,  November  16,  1916  164 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Lotos  Club  of  New 
York  to  Mr.  Booth  Tarkington,  November  25,  1916  . .  187 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  Mr.  Frank  Munsey  to 
Ambassador  James  W.  Gerard,  Ritz-Carlton  Hotel, 
New  York,  December  1916 195 

[5] 


o 


CONTENTS  —  Continued 

PAGE 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  "  New  York  World"  to 
President  Wilson  and  Others,  in  Celebration  of  Securing 
Permanent  Light  for  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  New  York,  December  2,  1916 202 

Address  at  the  Seventy-fifth  Anniversary  of  the  Philhar 
monic  Society  of  New  York,  Waldorf-Astoria,  January 

21,  1917        211 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Pilgrims  Society  to 
Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate  on  his  Eighty-fifth  Birthday, 
the  Union  League  Club,  New  York,  January  27,  1917  221 

Speech  at  the  Luncheon  given  by  the  Executive  Com 
mittee  of  the  Pilgrims  Society  to  Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm 
Tree,  Bankers  Club,  New  York,  May  7,  1917  . .  . .  231 

Speech  at  a  Special  Meeting  of  the  Union  League  Club  of 
New  York,  May  24,  1917,  in  Memory  of  Hon.  Joseph 
H.  Choate 239 

An  Appreciation  of  General  James  W.  Husted  at  the 
Unveiling  of  the  Husted  Memorial  in  Depew  Park, 
Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1917 256 

Speech  to  the  Drafted  Men  of  Tarrytown,  N.  Y.,  Who 
were  leaving  for  Camp,  September  10,  1917  . .  . .  262 

Address  before  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  October 

22,  1917        271 

Speech  at  the  Rooms  of  the  Geographical  and  Bio 
graphical  Society  of  New  York,  on  the  Occasion  of  the 
Hanging  of  Mr.  Depew's  Portrait  on  their  Walls,  Dec 
ember  13,1917  298 

Speech  at  the  Luncheon  of  the  Pilgrims  Society,  in 
Honor  of  Brig.  General  William  A.  White,  R.  M.  O., 
Bankers  Club,  New  York,  December  18,  1917  . .  . .  307 

Speech  at  the  Inauguration  of  Mr.  Depew  as  President  of 
the  Pilgrims  Society,  Bankers  Club,  New  York,  Janu 
ary  23,  1918  315 

Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  Mr.  Julien  Stevens  Ulman 
to  Dr.  Milenko  Vesnitch,  Representative  of  Serbia, 
January  31,  1918 324 

[6] 


CONTENTS — Continued 

PAGE 

Speech  at  a  Mass  Meeting  of  the  Citizens  of  Bates 
County,  Va.,  at  Hot  Springs,  July  4,  1918  . .  . .  332 

Address  at  the  Unveiling  of  Mr.  Depew's  Statue  in  Depew 
Park,  Peekskill.  N.  Y.,  September  28,  1918 351 

Speech  at  the  Luncheon  of  the  Merhants'  Association  of 
New  York,  Hotel  Astor,  October  10,  1918  . .  . .  366 

Extract  from  Speech  as  Presiding  Officer  introducing 
the  Guest,  delivered  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the 
Pilgrims  Society  of  New  York  to  Sir  Eric  Geddes, 
First  Lord  of  the  British  Admiralty,  Ritz-Carlton  Hotel, 
October  14,  1918 376 

LETTERS  AND  LITERARY  CONTRIBUTIONS 
A  Vision  of  Higher  Life.    Written  for  "Leslie's  Weekly"  383 

Changes  within  the  next  Seventy-five  Years.  Written 
for  the  "Brooklyn  Eagle"  on  Its  Seventy-fifth  Anni 
versary,  October  26,1916  385 

Little  Talks  with  Big  Men.  Interview  in  the  "Brooklyn 
Eagle,"  December  17,  1916 392 

Letter  of  Congratulation  to  Walter  W.  Griffith,  Esq.,  on 
his  Masonic  Jubilee,  June  26,  1917  396 

Letter  from  the  Children  of  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  7, 1917  398 
Answer  to  the  Children  of  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  13,  1917  401 

Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  Dr.  Charles  E.  Fitch,  January 
15,  1918  403 

Letters  from  President  Woodrow  Wilson,  in  Appreciation 
of  Speech  delivered  before  the  Pilgrims  Society,  Jan 
uary  23,  1918 404 

Letter  read  at  the  Dinner  given  to  Mr.  Edward  G.  Riggs, 
April  6,  1918  405 

Letter  to  the  Rippey  Bible  Class,  First  Presbyterian 
Church,  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  April  19,  1918 406 


[7] 


MY    VIEWS    OF    LIFE 

We  pass  this  way  but  once.  We  cannot  re 
trace  our  steps  to  any  preceding  milestone. 
Every  time  the  clock  strikes  it  is  both  the  an 
nouncement  of  the  hour  upon  which  we  are 
entering  and  the  knell  of  the  one  which  is  gone. 
Each  night  memory  balances  the  books  and  we 
know  before  we  sleep  whether  the  result  is  on 
the  right  or  on  the  wrong  side  of  our  account. 

The  older  we  grow  the  more  we  realize  that 
life  is  worth  the  living.  We  think  too  little  of 
the  fun  there  is  in  it.  We  are  too  parsimonious 
of  laughter.  We  do  not  appreciate  as  we  ought 
the  man  or  the  woman  who  can  make  us  forget 
while  we  are  amused.  We  love  the  past  and  its 
priceless  heritage,  but  unwise  is  the  man  who 
lives  in  it. 

The  secrets  of  happiness  and  longevity,  in 
my  judgment,  are  to  cherish  and  cultivate 
cheerful,  hopeful  and  buoyant  spirits.  If  you 
haven't  them,  create  them.  Enjoy  things  as 
they  are.  The  raggedest  person  I  ever  saw  was 
a  Turkish  peasant  standing  in  the  field,  clothed 
in  bits  of  old  carpet.  He  was  laughing  hilari- 


MY   VIEWS   OF   LIFE 

ously  at  our  well-clothed  party.  The  combina 
tion  of  color  and  humor  made  him  a  thing  of 
beauty,  if  not  a  joy  for  ever. 

Let  us  never  lose  our  faith  in  human  nature, 
no  matter  how  often  we  are  deceived.  Do  not 
let  deceptions  destroy  confidence  in  the  real, 
honest  goodness,  generosity,  humanity  and 
friendship  that  exist  in  the  world.  They  are 
overwhelmingly  in  the  majority. 


10 


Speech  at  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Dinner 
of  the  Montauk  Club  of  Brooklyn,  in 
Celebration  of  Mr.  Depew's  Eighty-second 
Birthday,  April  29,  1916. 

(Mr.  Depew's  birthday  is  the  23rd  of  April,  but  club 
conditions  made  change  of  date  necessary.) 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Montauk 
Club: 

All  anniversaries  are  interesting.  Each  has 
its  historical  significance  or  celebrates  an  event 
worth  remembering  to  those  who  participate, 
or  has  a  sentiment  of  lasting  interest.  Of  pa 
triotic  celebrations,  of  centennials  and  semi 
centennials  of  great  importance,  we  have  had 
an  unusual  number  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury.  With  one  after  another  came  recurrences 
of  the  birthdays  of  the  Republic  and  of  the  or 
ganization  of  the  different  departments  of  our 
government.  In  the  life  of  the  individual  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  is  the  most  interesting. 
We,  here  tonight  engaging  in  the  twenty-fifth  an 
nual  recurrence  of  this  most  gratifying  compli 
ment  which  you  have  paid  me  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  have  feelings  both  pathetic  and  joy 
ful.  We  cannot  forget  and  we  contribute  the 
wreath  of  affection  and  memory  to  those  who 
have  joined  the  majority  during  this  period. 

[11] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

But  we  extend  our  congratulations  and  felici 
tations  to  those  who  are  still  with  us  in  full 
vigor,  health  and  happiness;  we  welcome  the 
younger  men  who  have  come  into  this  associa 
tion  and  join  in  this  celebration. 

Twenty-five  is  the  most  important  age  in 
the  life  of  a  young  man.  At  twenty-one  he  be 
comes  a  voter  and  a  citizen,  but  in  most  cases 
he  is  a  callow  youth  of  violent  opinions  and 
immature  judgment.  At  twenty-five  his  feet 
are  standing  upon  more  solid  ground.  In  esti 
mating  himself  and  his  powers  and  comparing 
them  with  his  ambitions,  he  has  decided  upon 
his  career  and  entered  hopefully  and  joyously 
upon  it.  We  are  misled  when  we  take  the  ex 
ample  of  extraordinary  geniuses  for  judging 
our  own  average  selves.  William  Pitt  at  twen 
ty-four  was  Prime  Minister  of  England.  He 
organized  the  forces  and  reorganized  them  and 
again  reorganized  them,  which  finally  resulted 
in  Waterloo  and  the  defeat  of  Napoleon.  But 
he  had  a  wonderful  heredity  in  a  marvelous 
father  and  was  himself  one  of  the  few  con 
structive  geniuses  of  the  ages.  Delane,  famous 
editor  of  the  London  Times,  entered  upon  his 
duties  at  twenty-four.  Walters,  the  sole  owner 
of  the  Times  in  the  second  generation,  a  re 
markable  judge  of  men,  discovered  the  singular 
maturity  and  the  wonderful  powers  of  Delane. 
For  thirty-seven  years,  Delane  was  the  London 
Times.  He  made  it  the  "Thunderer"  of  Eu- 
[12] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

rope.  He  foresaw  events,  he  recognized  bud 
ding  statesmen,  his  vision  encompassed  all  Eu 
ropean  and  Asiatic  activities.  With  genuine 
foresight,  with  the  ability  to  select  incompar 
able  aids  for  the  different  departments  of  the 
work,  a  courage  which  knew  neither  fear  nor 
apprehension  and  honor  of  the  purest  and  high 
est  type,  he  made  the  Times  a  leader  of  public 
opinion,  a  maker  of  measures  and  a  tremen 
dous  factor  in  the  creation  of  Greater  England. 
But  there  again  we  have  the  exceptional  editor, 
who  had  no  predecessors  or  successors. 

At  twenty-five  the  average  man  knows  the 
kind  of  a  woman  he  wants  for  a  helpmate  for 
life.  I  do  not  exclude  love  from  this  selection, 
but  I  do  say  that  love  and  judgment  are  more 
likely  to  go  hand  in  hand  together  at  this 
period  than  at  twenty-one  and  under.  Every 
body  in  the  teens  and  up  to  twenty-one  has 
had  his  first  passion  which  he  calls  love.  He  is 
lucky,  if  matrimony  follows,  in  discovering  that 
the  accident  is  a  success.  Too  large  a  propor 
tion  of  our  divorces,  which  are  the  disgrace  of 
our  modern  social  life,  come  from  early  indis 
cretions. 

The  happiest  of  matrimonial  celebrations  is 
the  silver  wedding.  The  golden  one  is  reminis 
cent;  it  is  for  grown  up  children  and  grandchil 
dren;  they  look  upon  the  old  couple  with  affec 
tion,  are  glad  that  they  are  still  upon  the  stage, 
feel  a  guardianship  of  their  health,  and  yet 

[131 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

have  flown  from  the  nest  and  made  their  own. 
But  at  the  silver  wedding,  the  bride  and  groom 
are  in  the  zenith  of  their  intellectual  and  phys 
ical  powers,  they  have  overcome  most  of  the 
difficulties  of  life,  they  are  established  in  the 
security  of  the  present  and  the  future  and  they 
still  have  a  guiding  hand  and  a  lifegiving  inter 
est  in  shaping  the  careers  and  helping  the  prog 
ress  of  their  boys  and  girls. 

Twenty-five  years  of  effort  is  the  climacteric 
in  business  and  the  professions.  By  that  time 
the  clerk  has  become  manager  or  partner  or 
head  of  the  firm;  the  reporter  has  become  an 
editor;  the  telegraph  operator  or  the  head  of 
the  section  gang  or  the  conductor  has  become 
general  manager  or  president  of  the  road;  the 
apprentice  in  the  machine  shop  has  become  the 
foreman  or  the  master  mechanic.  In  other 
words,  the  underbrush  has  been  cleared  away, 
the  road  has  been  leveled  and  macadamized, 
the  bridges  have  been  built  and  the  way  is 
clear  for  advancement,  or  for  retirement  and 
rest. 

In  1893,  I  delivered  the  oration  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago. 
It  was  the  first  one  of  these  great  expositions 
after  the  centennial  one  in  1876.  I  addressed 
the  largest  audience  under  one  roof  that  any 
orator  ever  had.  The  exposition  building  cov 
ered  many  acres,  was  about  a  half  mile  long 
and  a  quarter  mile  wide.  It  had  90,000  chairs 
[14] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

and  standing  room  for  50,000  more.  In  that 
vast  auditorium  the  unconscious  movement  of 
such  a  mass  of  people  made  a  roar  like  Niag 
ara.  Mr.  Elaine,  who  was  a  great  and  success 
ful  public  speaker,  said  to  me  once,  that  he 
was  certain  after  much  experience  that  the 
largest  audience  capable  of  hearing  perfectly 
and  enjoying  an  orator,  was  6,000.  I  am  sure 
that  more  than  6,000  heard  me  then.  I  spoke 
afterwards  in  the  Coliseum  in  Chicago,  which 
held  28,000,  and  while  they  could  not  hear 
with  comfort  I  felt  by  those  signs  which  a 
speaker  so  well  understands  that  the  whole 
audience  did  hear  the  address.  I  have  many 
times  had  little  or  no  difficulty  in  reaching 
10,000  people.  I  afterwards  delivered  the 
opening  address  at  the  Omaha  fair,  the  very 
successful,  delightful  and  beautiful  one  at 
Charleston  and  one  other.  I  remember  the 
shock  to  my  vanity  which  occurred  at  the 
Omaha  fair.  My  guide  was  Mr.  Morton,  the 
father  of  Paul  Morton  and  Secretary  of  Agri 
culture  in  Cleveland's  Cabinet.  In  speaking  of 
the  different  shows  he  said:  " There  is  a  ballet 
from  New  York.  It  is  the  only  show  which  is 
a  total  failure,  because  probably  a  worse  lot  of 
dancers  never  were  got  together.  They  have 
neither  art,  nor  grace  nor  beauty."  I  said, 
"Out  of  loyalty  to  my  State  of  New  York,  I 
suppose  I  must  attend  the  show."  So  we  took 
seats  in  the  empty  auditorium.  His  verdict 

[151 


AT  FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

was  correct  as  to  the  show,  but  soon  every  seat 
was  filled,  the  aisles  were  jammed  and  people 
were  standing  almost  on  each  other's  shoul 
ders.  With  great  difficulty  we  made  our  way 
out.  Then  the  secret  was  revealed.  The 
barker  was  shouting,  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
this  way.  In  this  show  is  the  only  opportunity 
to  see  the  orator  of  the  day,  the  only  chance  to 
see  the  great  orator  from  the  East,  Chauncey 
M.  Depew.  Admission  only  ten  cents,  ten 
cents,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  see  the  great 
orator  of  the  day." 

Reminiscences  recall  how  rapidly  time  flies, 
and  as  dear  old  Rip  Van  Winkle,  in  the  person 
of  that  most  delightful  actor  of  his  time,  Joe 
Jefferson,  used  to  say,  "How  soon  we  are  for 
got." 

One  of  the  most  brilliant  and  forceful  of  my 
colleagues  during  my  time  in  the  Senate  was 
Foraker  of  Ohio.  He  commanded  the  atten 
tion  of  his  colleagues  and  largely  of  the  coun 
try.  Within  the  last  few  days,  there  has  come 
from  the  publisher  two  volumes  of  his  reminis 
cences.  They  are  written  with  his  accustomed 
vigor,  incisiveness  and  positiveness.  I  was 
reading  a  few  days  since  a  long  and  discrim 
inating  criticism  upon  the  book.  The  period 
covered,  so  far  as  the  Senate  is  concerned,  was 
from  1898  to  1908.  Several  Senators  and  ques 
tions  were  uppermost  in  the  public  mind  dur 
ing  the  whole  of  that  period.  Some  of  the 

riei 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

ablest  and  most  famous  men  who  have  ever 
adorned  that  great  body  participated  in  these 
discussions  and  were  the  authors  of  measures  of 
vital  importance  at  the  time,  but  the  critic 
says,  "  While  these  reminiscences  are  interest 
ing  from  an  historical  standpoint,  they  have  no 
co-temporary  meaning."  The  actors  are  either 
dead  or  have  passed  off  the  stage.  There  is 
little  or  no  recollection  of  them  at  present. 
The  measures  have  gone  upon  the  statute 
books  or  they  failed  and  have  passed  out  of 
sight,  and  yet  the  period  covered  by  Senator 
Foraker,  and  it  was  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  exciting  in  the  whole  history  of  the  coun 
try,  began  eighteen  years  ago  and  ended  eight 
years  ago.  "How  soon  we  are  forgot." 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  become  well  ac 
quainted  about  thirty  years  ago  with  Mr. 
Gladstone.  He  is  one  of  the  very  few  states 
men  or  men  of  note  whom  one  meets  in  a  life 
time  whom  it  was  a  supreme  privilege  to  know. 
I  have  never  met  anyone  of  such  wide  vision 
and  varied  acquirements.  There  seemed  no 
limit  to  his  knowledge,  and  intimate  knowl 
edge,  of  questions  in  every  realm  of  human 
activity  and  inquiry.  He  had  to  an  extraor 
dinary  degree  the  faculty  of  acquisition,  ab 
sorption  and  assimilation.  Whoever  he  met, 
man  or  woman,  instantly  became  the  victim  of 
those  inquiring  tentacles  which  fastened  upon 
the  subject  and  drew  from  him  or  her  in  a 

[171 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

short  time  the  results  of  the  study  and  work  of 
a  lifetime.  I  came  to  know  him  better  be 
cause,  like  most  Americans,  I  was  deeply  inter 
ested  in  Home  Rule  for  Ireland.  It  is  curious 
how  American  sentiment  on  that  subject  was 
misinterpreted  on  the  other  side.  Most  of  the 
distinguished  people  I  met  expressed  amaze 
ment  that  there  should  be  such  intense  hostil 
ity  in  the  United  States  against  England.  The 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  King  Edward  VII, 
an  exceedingly  open-minded  and  fair-minded 
man  and  always  most  cordial  to  our  country, 
inquired  of  me  with  deep  anxiety  one  day,  "Is 
this  home  rule  sentiment  which  seems  to  be 
so  universal  with  you  in  America  a  desire  to 
break  up  the  British  Empire?"  I  told  him 
not  at  all,  but  it  was  the  faith  which  we  Amer 
icans  had  in  federated  government,  our  union 
of  sovereign  states  with  certain  powers  in  the 
general  government  and  others  reserved  to  the 
states,  that  had  been  in  our  judgment  the 
cause  of  the  growth,  prosperity  and  power  of 
the  United  States  and  the  success  of  our  ex 
periment  in  government. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  while  probably  not  the  great 
est  orator  who  had  ever  appeared  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  was  the  greatest  orator  of  his 
time.  He  certainly  was  one  of  the  greatest 
party  leaders  who  has  ever  appeared  in  the 
politics  of  a  free  government  and  he  envisioned 
the  future  as  few  statesmen  ever  did.  In  the 
[  181 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

world  tragedy  of  today,  the  Parliament  of 
which  he  was  master  for  so  many  years,  is 
meeting  questions  which  involve  the  very  ex 
istence  of  the  Empire  and  all  the  possibilities 
of  its  future.  There  are  a  number  of  strong 
men  in  the  House  of  Commons  who  were  there 
with  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  yet  in  the  debates 
which  are  taking  place  one  fails  to  find  any 
mention,  reminiscence  or  recollection  of  this 
great  statesman.  Twenty-four  years  ago,  at 
eighty- three  years  of  age,  he  had  one  of  the  great 
est  triumphs  of  his  life.  He  had  overthrown  his 
enemies,  he  had  become  supreme  by  a  great 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  was 
again  Prime  Minister.  I  know  of  no  instance 
of  a  man  of  that  age  enduring  the  hardships  of 
such  a  canvass,  coming  out  triumphantly  and 
then  assuming  the  reins  of  government.  This 
he  crowned  by  hammering  through  the  House 
of  Commons  his  favorite  measure  of  home  rule, 
which  of  course  met  an  overwhelming  defeat  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  I  met  a  lady  recently 
who  during  the  many  years  she  had  lived  in 
London  was  a  frequent  attendant  at  the  House 
of  Commons.  I  said  to  her,  "Tell  me  some 
thing  about  Gladstone  and  his  oratory  and 
what  you  thought  of  it."  She  said,  "Oh,  Glad 
stone.  He  pounded  the  table."  "How  soon 
we  are  forgot!" 

When  we  met  here  first,  the  Harrison  admin 
istration  was  closing  and  Cleveland's  was  im- 
[19] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

minent.  Both  of  these  statesmen  went  out  of 
office  singularly  unpopular.  They  were  mis 
represented,  abused  and  hated.  If  I  read  the 
history  of  the  administrations  of  American 
Presidents  aright,  both  Harrison  and  Cleveland 
will  grow  in  fame  with  time.  Harrison  was 
certainly  one  of  the  ablest  and  Cleveland  one 
of  the  most  courageous  of  our  chief  magis 
trates.  Harrison's  unpopularity  was  due  to  a 
singularly  cold  and  repellent  manner.  He  was 
a  great  lawyer,  had  been  an  admirable  volun 
teer  soldier  and  possessed  executive  qualities  of 
rare  distinction,  but  he  repelled  all  who  came 
in  contact  with  him.  The  favorite  designation 
of  him  among  Senators  and  Congressmen  was 
"The  Iceberg. "  I  happened  to  hold  the  posi 
tion  as  nominee  of  the  State  of  New  York  and 
outside  for  President  in  1888,  where  I  could 
have  much  to  say  as  to  who  should  be  the  se 
lection  of  the  Convention  when  I  retired,  and 
I  selected  Harrison.  The  support  of  New  York 
made  his  nomination  good  and  his  election  fol 
lowed.  I  led  his  forces  in  the  Convention  four 
years  afterwards,  where  he  was  renominated. 
Now  as  to  the  question  whether  he  was  a  cold, 
isolated,  selfish  man,  which  were  the  charges 
against  him.  He  offered  me  after  his  inaugu 
ration  every  place  in  his  Cabinet  except  Secre 
tary  of  State,  which  he  said  he  had  promised 
to  Mr.  Elaine,  or  any  mission  abroad.  It  was 
impossible  for  me  at  that  time  to  enter  public 
[20] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

life  and  I  declined.  I  never  shall  forget  the  in 
terview  after  his  renomination  in  1892.  He 
said  to  me,  "My  life  has  been  one  of  intense 
struggle,  a  continuous  and  bitter  fight,  every 
thing  I  have  got  I  have  won  by  hard  knocks, 
most  strenuous  work  and  fierce  contests.  You 
are  the  only  man  who  has  spontaneously  sup 
ported  me,  and  effectively  so.  I  want  to  show 
my  gratitude.  I  can  offer  you  at  present  noth 
ing  but  broken  bread,  the  Secretaryship  of 
State  for  the  balance  of  my  term,  but  its  con 
tinuance  if  I  am  re-elected."  All  this  was  said 
with  an  emotion  so  deep  and  profound  that  it 
was  painful.  Beneath  that  cold  exterior,  harsh 
voice  and  repellent  manner  was  one  of  the 
warmest  of  hearts  and  the  most  responsive  of 
sentiments,  but  afraid,  from  long  experience 
with  hostile  elements,  that  a  show  of  feeling 
would  be  taken  as  an  evidence  of  weakness. 

Two  questions  whose  wise  solution  is  essen 
tial  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  are  the 
currency  and  railroads.  Both  of  these  have 
received  more  attention  and  legislation  during 
our  quarter  of  a  century  than  in  all  preceding 
years.  It  is  interesting  to  take  note  of  the 
epoch-making  character  of  the  effort  by  Con 
gress  and  the  courts  to  give  us  a  currency  in 
harmony  with  that  which  has  been  demon 
strated  to  be  right  by  the  experience  of  the 
highly  organized  financial  and  industrial  na 
tions  of  the  world,  and  a  regulation  of  railroads 
[21] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

and  a  solving  of  the  railway  problem  which 
will  be  in  accordance  with  the  proper  develop 
ment,  progress  and  defense  of  the  United 
States. 

We  had,  early  in  our  history,  reached  a 
sound  basis  for  banking  when  it  became  a  foot 
ball  in  politics.  In  all  countries,  a  central  bank 
is  the  regulator  and  the  United  States  National 
Bank  was  increasing  in  efficiency  in  serving 
that  purpose  in  our  system.  When  General 
Jackson,  the  most  autocratic  and  masterful  of 
our  Presidents,  wanted  to  use  the  bank  for  his 
political  ambitions  and  could  not,  he  vetoed 
the  renewal  of  the  charter  and  was  surprised  to 
find  that  the  power  of  the  bank  was  still  po 
tent  in  another  way.  He  peremptorily  ordered 
the  withdrawal  of  the  United  States  deposits. 
His  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  financier, 
absolutely  refused  and  was  dismissed.  His 
successor,  also  a  financier,  absolutely  refused 
and  was  dismissed.  His  third  appointee,  who 
neither  knew  nor  cared  anything  for  finance, 
but  was  an  obedient  servant  of  the  President, 
promptly  removed  the  deposits;  the  Senate  re 
fused  to  confirm  the  Secretary,  he  lost  his  job 
but  the  bank  was  destroyed.  The  Senate 
passed  a  resolution  declaring  the  act  of  the 
President  not  only  unconstitutional  but  an 
usurpation  of  arbitrary  powers.  The  politics 
of  the  country  were  largely  dependent  for  four 
years  upon  that  resolution  remaining  on  the 
[22] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

records  of  the  Senate,  and  in  1837  it  was  ex 
punged  and  Gen.  Jackson's  reputation  as  a 
financier  reincarnated.  Then  the  country  waded 
through  the  welter  of  state  banks  and  their 
bankruptcies,  state  bank  bills  and  their  uncer 
tainties,  frequent  panics  and  frightful  financial 
and  industrial  disasters,  until  the  Civil  War. 
Out  of  the  necessities  of  that  conflict  came  the 
National  Banking  Act,  which  was  progress, 
and  decided  progress.  Then  came  fiat  money, 
happily  set  aside  by  education,  and  then  the 
gigantic  struggle  for  the  parity  of  fluctuating 
silver  with  the  fixed  standard  of  gold. 

As  we  look  back  over  the  period  covered  by 
the  recollection  of  comparatively  young  men 
here,  we  are  amazed  to  find  how  the  silver  mi 
crobe  entered  the  mental  machinery  and  con 
trolled  the  thinking  apparatus  of  the  leading 
men  of  both  parties  during  these  ten  years. 
For  the  rescue  of  the  country  from  plunging 
over  the  precipice  into  financial  chaos  by  rea 
son  of  this  silver  heresy,  we  are  indebted  to  the 
ability  and  stubborn  courage  of  President  Gro- 
ver  Cleveland.  With  the  enormous  power, 
greater  then  than  now,  of  a  President,  with 
vast  patronage  to  hand  out  and  favors  to  be 
stow,  Cleveland  forced  the  repeal  of  the  silver 
act,  which  was  reducing  our  currency  to  a 
Mexican  or  Chinese  standard,  through  a  Con 
gress  of  whose  members  scarcely  any  of  his 
own  party  voted  as  they  believed,  and  not 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

many  of  the  opposition.  More  than  anything 
else,  this  farsighted  and  patriotic  action  of  the 
President  lost  him  popular  support  and  he  re 
tired  from  the  Presidency  practically  by  unani 
mous  consent.  I  saw  much  of  him  when  he  re 
turned  to  private  life.  He  had  no  regrets  and 
no  misgivings,  was  absolutely  certain  he  was 
right  and  that  time  would  vindicate  him,  and 
so  was  one  of  the  most  happy  and  contented  of 
ex-Presidents.  The  vindication  has  come  more 
rapidly  than  he  thought,  and  to-day  he  stands 
deservedly  high  among  great  Presidents  of  the 
United  States. 

The  adoption  of  the  gold  standard  under 
McKinley  was  one  of  the  signal  triumphs  of  his 
administration. 

Here  I  pause  to  pay  tribute  to  a  statesman 
little  known  by  the  general  public,  because  he 
possessed  none  of  the  arts  of  popularity  and 
apparently  cared  nothing  for  popular  applause. 
I  mean  Nelson  W.  Aldrich  of  Rhode  Island. 
He  was  thirty  years  in  the  Senate.  He  had 
that  incalculable  element  of  independence 
which  came  from  the  certainty  of  continued 
backing  in  his  own  State.  He  was  a  close  stu 
dent  and  finance  was  his  hobby.  The  ambi 
tion  of  his  life  was  to  place  the  currency  sys 
tem  of  the  United  States  upon  a  wise  and  per 
manent  basis  which  would  prevent  panics  and 
furnish  an  elastic  currency  whose  expansion 
and  contraction  automatically  would  be  equal 
[24] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

to  every  demand  and  every  crisis.  As  the  re 
sult  of  his  great  experience,  his  profound  study, 
his  analytical  mind  evolved  the  reserve  sys 
tem.  The  failure  to  secure  its  adoption  was  a 
disappointment  more  acute  than  even  his  best 
friends  understood,  because  he  was  one  of  the 
most  reserved,  reticent  and  self-contained  of 
men,  and  he  retired  voluntarily  to  private  life. 
There  is  very  little  of  the  administrative  acts 
of  President  Wilson  with  which  I  agree,  but  he 
certainly  deserves  lasting  credit  for  making  one 
of  the  fundamentals  of  his  scheme  of  govern 
ment  at  the  beginning  the  settlement  of  the 
currency  question.  He  had  a  power  over  Con 
gress  equal  to  that  of  Gen.  Jackson.  In  this 
case,  it  was  a  useful  autocracy  and  it  forced 
through  a  reluctant  Congress  the  Federal 
Reserve  Act.  It  practically  settles  for  the 
future  our  financial  system  upon  a  proper 
basis.  The  work  of  Senator  Aldrich  contrib 
uted  much  to  this  Act.  There  is  no  more  re 
markable  illustration  of  the  power  and  con 
tinuing  strength  of  a  mighty  personality,  even 
when  wrong,  than  that  it  took  this  country, 
with  generation  after  generation  of  vigorous 
thinkers  and  independent  actors,  from  1832  to 
1914,  eighty-two  years,  nearly  a  century,  to 
correct  the  evils  and  remove  the  effects  of  the 
arbitrary  acts  and  imperial  whims  of  Andrew 
Jackson. 

Important  as  was  the  currency  question  and 
[25] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

our  financial  conditions,  the  railroad  question, 
still  unsettled,  is  of  greater  moment  to  the 
country.  In  all  ages  of  the  world,  transporta 
tion  routes  have  built  up  empires,  great  cities 
and  prosperous  communities,  and  the  change 
of  them  has  led  to  their  decay  and  ruin.  The 
railway  has  largely  taken  the  place  of  the 
water  routes  for  transportation,  because  the 
railroad  can  go  anywhere  and  is  not  dependent 
upon  nature.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
our  railway  system  was  in  its  infancy,  but  now 
it  has  250,000  miles  in  operation,  an  invest 
ment  in  round  numbers  of  twenty  billion  dol 
lars,  gross  revenue  of  three  billion  dollars,  two 
millions  of  employees  directly  on  the  payroll 
and  two  millions  more  indirectly  but  neverthe 
less  equally  dependent  upon  railway  prosper 
ity.  In  other  words,  about  twenty  millions  of 
men,  women  and  children  of  our  one  hundred 
millions  are  dependent  directly  upon  the  rail 
way  treasury  for  a  living.  They  carry  yearly 
one  thousand  millions  of  passengers,  with  a 
safety  that  is  a  marvel.  While  they  have 
crossed  the  Continent  and  reached  and  devel 
oped  vast  interior  territories,  yet  their  work  is 
still  incomplete.  As  irrigation  and  water  power 
are  understood  and  permitted,  more  railroads 
are  absolutely  required  if  any  benefit  is  to 
come  from  these  improvements.  At  least  ten 
thousand  millions  of  dollars  more  must  be  in 
vested  in  construction  and  extension  if  the  re- 
[26] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

sources  of  our  country  are  to  provide  for  coin 
ing  and  increasing  generations  of  inhabitants. 

From  1870  to  1880  the  construction  of  rail 
roads  was  encouraged  by  land  grants  and  local 
bounties.  When  the  products  of  the  farm  on 
the  market  fell  below  the  cost  of  production,  a 
granger  movement  led  to  drastic  legislation. 
When  New  York  State  presented  me  as  its  can 
didate  for  the  Presidency  in  the  National  Con 
vention  of  1888,  I  was  then  president  of  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad.  Granger  legisla 
tion  and  granger  sentiment  were  exceedingly 
violent  in  the  Middle  West.  A  representative 
came  from  a  delegation  of  one  of  these  States, 
who  said,  "If  you  are  nominated,  you  now 
being  a  railroad  president,  it  will  ruin  our  party 
in  my  State/'  I  said,  "We  have  got  all  over 
that  in  New  York.  Why  does  it  survive  in 
your  State?"  He  said,  "Because  both  parties 
have  cultivated  it.'7  And  further,  "Every 
town  in  my  State  has  a  grange  that  meets 
weekly.  The  local  attorneys  and  candidates 
for  office  address  these  granges  upon  the  rail 
road  question.  We  tell  them  that  freight  rates 
are  robbery  and  that  if  their  farm  products 
were  carried  free,  as  they  ought  to  be,  it  would 
make  all  the  difference  between  prosperity  and 
bankruptcy.  We  Republican  lawyers  and  poli 
ticians  have  outpaced  our  Democratic  oppo 
nents  and  captured  the  grange  vote."  "Well," 
I  said,  "who  are  your  clients?"  His  answer 

[271 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

was,  "I  am  the  county  attorney  of  the  Rock 
Island  railroad,  and  that  is  my  living." 

After  rate  legislation,  which  proved  a  failure 
because  it  crippled  the  roads  so  that  they  could 
not  render  the  service  which  communities  re 
quired,  came  happily  the  commission  system. 
I  think  I  was  the  first  American  railroad  man 
to  advocate  commissions.  They  were  first  ad 
visory,  afterwards  mandatory.  Then  came,  in 
1887,  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 
It  was  constructed  on  a  wrong  principle  of  en 
couraging,  promoting  and  forcing  competition 
among  railroads,  which  led  inevitably  to  the 
bankruptcy  of  the  weaker  lines  and  the  ruin  of 
the  territory  which  they  served,  but  has  been 
enormously  improved  since,  first  by  the  Anti- 
Rebate  Act  of  1903,  then  by  the  Hepburn  Act 
of  1906,  increasing  the  powers  of  the  commis 
sion  and  including  in  its  authority  sleeping 
cars,  the  express  companies,  private  cars  and 
pipe  lines,  and  further  by  the  amendments  of 
1910,  enlarging  still  more  its  powers  and  gath 
ering  in  telegraphs,  telephones  and  cables. 
The  powers  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com 
mission  have  also  been  greatly  enlarged  by  the 
construction  of  these  laws  by  the  courts.  Now 
the  railroad  in  almost  everything  essential  to 
its  welfare  is  under  the  control  not  only  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  but  of  forty- 
eight  State  governments.  That  situation  is  in 
tolerable,  because  no  enterprise,  great  or  small, 

[281 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

can  perform  proper  service  or  properly  develop 
under  forty-eight  masters  with  conflicting  in 
terests.  Twenty  per  cent  of  the  traffic  of  the 
United  States  is  intrastate,  or  within  the  lines 
of  the  State,  while  eighty  per  cent  is  interstate 
and  interests  the  whole  country.  The  one  hun 
dred  per  cent  should  be  wholly  in  the  power  of 
the  Federal  Commission.  The  income  of  the 
railroads  was  in  1914  $3,118,920,318.  Of  this 
income  45  per  cent  goes  to  employees,  5  per 
cent  to  stockholders  and  the  other  half  goes  for 
supplies,  coal,  rails,  cars,  ties,  locomotives,  re 
pairs,  maintenance,  interest  and  taxes. 

Our  country  and  conditions  are  so  different 
because  of  the  powers  of  the  States,  sovereign 
in  many  ways,  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  prece 
dents  to  guide  us  in  the  experiences  of  other 
countries.  The  German  government  has  taken 
over  all  the  railroads  and  they  are  government 
owned  and  controlled;  they  are  part  of  the  mili 
tary  system  and  its  needs,  and  the  industrial  life 
is  subordinate  to  the  military  power.  Extensions 
and  new  construction  which  are  necessary  for  a 
growing  country  are  far  behind  the  needs  of 
Germany  under  this  system.  In  its  relations  to 
its  employees,  they  become  a  part  of  the  high 
militarism  of  the  German  Empire.  They  are 
virtually  enlisted  soldiers  and  subject  to  martial 
law;  their  pay  is  one  quarter  that  of  the  em 
ployees  of  the  railways  of  the  United  States. 
The  French  government  has  taken  over  one 
[291 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

line,  with  results  disastrous  to  its  efficiency  and 
income.  The  demands  of  the  members  of  the 
legislative  assembly  and  powerful  politicians 
for  patronage  have  crowded  the  employment  so 
far  beyond  the  needs  of  the  service  that  ineffi 
ciency  has  resulted  and  deficiencies  in  net  reve 
nue  cause  an  annual  loss  to  the  government 
treasury.  Great  Britain  has  the  better  system, 
somewhat  like  ours,  with  a  Board  of  Trade  pos 
sessing  power  over  the  management,  conduct, 
rates  and  conditions  of  the  railroads.  The  re 
sults  of  the  foreign  systems  and  our  own  so  far 
as  the  public  is  concerned,  of  which  rates  is  the 
most  important,  are  these:  In  1867,  the  freight 
rates  on  American  railroads  were  1.92  cents,  or 
practically  2  cents,  per  ton  per  mile.  They 
have  declined  until  in  1915  they  were  .76  of  a 
cent  per  ton  per  mile,  or  otherwise  a  decline  of 
one  and  one-third.  They  are  2  cents  per  ton 
per  mile  in  Great  Britain,  1.51  cents  per  ton 
per  mile  in  France  and  1.21  cents  per  ton  per 
mile  in  Germany.  When  a  mill  per  ton  per 
mile  makes  such  a  difference  in  revenue,  one 
can  easily  see  how  almost  incalculably  enor 
mous  is  the  difference  between  these  foreign 
rates  and  our  own  to  the  benefit  of  the  ship 
pers  of  the  United  States. 

I  pause  here  to  pay  tribute  to  a  locomotive 

engineer  whom  I  have  long  known,  Dennis  J. 

Cassin.    The  Empire  State  Express,  one  of  the 

famous  trains  in  the  world,  has  been  running 

[30] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

for  twenty-four  years.  It  has  carried  eight  mil 
lions  of  passengers  and  never  lost  one.  During 
sixteen  years  of  that  period  Dennis  J.  Cassin 
was  its  engineer,  and  except  by  slight  accidents 
to  the  machinery,  occurring  marvelously  few 
times,  has  never  been  late  and  never  lost  a 
day.  He  was  worthily  the  recipient,  in  a  hot 
competition,  of  the  Harriman  medal  for  distin 
guished  record  in  handling  his  locomotive. 

I  want  also  to  pay  tribute  to  the  executive 
officers  of  the  railways  of  the  country.  All  of 
them,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  have  come 
up  from  the  ranks.  They  have  been  advanced 
from  humble  positions  not  by  influence,  but  by 
merit.  They  have  little  or  no  financial  interest 
in  the  companies  of  which  they  are  the  execu 
tive  heads,  but  they  have  a  keen  and  conscien 
tious  sense  of  duty  to  the  public,  to  the  em 
ployees  of  the  railways,  to  the  stockholders 
and  bondholders.  They  believe  that  true  popu 
larity  in  the  administration  of  their  most  exact 
ing  duties  comes  from  the  efficiency  of  the  ma 
chine  which  they  manage,  the  service  which  it 
renders,  the  perfection  in  which  it  is  main 
tained  and  the  reasonable  returns  which  it 
gives.  Acting  as  they  do  in  semi-public  capac 
ities,  their  ability,  their  integrity,  their  honor 
and  their  efficiency  are  deserving  of  public  con 
fidence. 

Now,  what  is  the  matter  with  the  railways? 
The  problem  is  so  nearly  solved  that  it  is  most 
F311 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

unfortunate  it  should  be  halted  by  demagogism 
or  half-informed  or  misinformed  clamor.  The 
railway  lives,  pays  its  employees,  buys  its  ma 
terial,  keeps  its  road  in  order,  adds  to  its  effi 
ciency,  extends  its  line  only  by  the  monies 
which  come  into  the  treasury  from  the  rates 
which  it  is  permitted  to  charge.  This  the  gov 
ernment  regulates  absolutely.  Just  now  a  cri 
sis  is  impending  which  illustrates  the  situation 
and  its  conditions.  Four  hundred  thousand  of 
the  two  millions  of  employees,  the  most  highly 
paid  and  of  high  intelligence,  who  operate  the 
trains,  have  formulated  demands  upon  the 
whole  railway  system  of  the  country,  which  will 
exact  in  addition  to  their  present  pay,  one  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars  a  year.  The  railways 
can  get  that  money  only  in  three  ways.  One  is 
to  stop  dividends  and  the  payment  of  interest 
on  their  indebtedness,  which  means  bankruptcy 
and  deterioration  fatal  to  efficient  service  for 
the  public.  It  means  the  ruin  of  savings  banks 
and  life  insurance  companies  and  the  disloca 
tion  of  our  whole  system  of  credit  and  income. 
It  also  means  the  end  of  extensions  and  con 
struction,  because  capital  under  such  circum 
stances  could  not  be  procured  at  any  price. 
Another  is  to  cut  down  the  train  service,  the 
shop  work  for  repairs  and  replacements,  the 
maintenance  of  the  track  and  other  economies, 
which  would  lay  off  one-third  of  the  force  and 
cripple  beyond  calculation  the  farming,  com- 

[321 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

mercial  and  manufacturing  interests  desiring 
rapid  and  regular  transportation  to  market. 
The  third  remedy  is  an  advance  of  rates  suffi 
cient  to  meet  the  expenditure.  This  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  government;  it  should  be  in 
the  control  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com 
mission.  That  body  should  have  full  power 
and  it  should  be  made  its  duty  to  investigate 
this  demand  for  one  hundred  millions,  and  all 
other  demands,  ascertain  if  they  are  right  and 
proper  that  the  whole  or  what  part  of  it  should 
be  granted,  and  then  adjust  a  rate  which  would 
meet  the  expenditure.  I  see  no  other  way  in 
which  an  elastic  system  can  be  created  which 
will  meet  the  requirements  of  labor  and  permit 
the  maintenance  and  necessary  expansion  of 
the  railways. 

There  is  a  suggestion  that  if  the  demand  is 
not  granted  it  might  be  enforced  by  a  strike.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  wise  leaders  of  the  rail 
way  organizations  would  go  to  that  extreme, 
but  if  it  did  happen,  and  it  might,  has  anyone 
contemplated  what  it  would  mean  if  all  the 
railways  in  the  United  States  were  stopped? 
There  is  no  city  which  has  supplies  of  food  for 
a  week,  nor  any  village  or  town.  In  two  days, 
bread  would  be  a  dollar  a  loaf  and  meat  not  to 
be  had  at  any  price.  From  lack  of  coal  and 
inability  to  relieve  the  congestion  of  their  ware 
houses  of  accumulated  products,  factories 
would  shut  down.  With  the  necessaries  of  life 

[331 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

not  procurable  at  any  price,  the  well-to-do 
would  be  no  better  off  than  those  who  were  de 
pendent  upon  then-  daily  wage,  except  for  a 
while,  while  food  lasted,  but  for  those  who  were 
dependent  upon  their  daily  wage,  with  wages 
stopped  and  prices  beyond  the  reach  of  their 
savings,  the  European  war,  with  all  its  horrors, 
would  form  an  insignificant  chapter  in  history 
compared  with  American  anarchy  and  chaos. 

But  let  us  dismiss  our  fears  and  be  in  har 
mony  with  the  octogenarian  who  said  the  only 
troubles  he  ever  had  came  from  worrying  about 
things  which  never  happened.  Our  year  of 
1916  is  the  centenary  of  the  savings  bank.  One 
hundred  years  ago  the  first  institution  of  this 
kind  was  established,  on  December  13th.  To 
day  there  are  in  the  United  States  2,159,  and 
the  savings  deposited  with  them,  in  round  num 
bers,  amount  to  five  thousand  millions  of 
dollars,  five  times  the  vast  sum  which  Ger 
many  exacted  from  France  after  the  war  of 
1870,  and  not  a  dollar  of  which  has  France 
since  then,  with  all  her  prosperity,  been  able  to 
pay,  though  she  has  kept  up  the  interest.  Only 
think,  just  for  a  moment,  what  that  five  thou 
sand  millions  of  dollars  is,  the  story  it  tells  of 
thrift,  of  economies,  of  little  contributions  made 
from  self-denial  to  the  provident  fund;  think 
for  a  moment  of  what  it  means  for  homes,  for 
independence,  for  salvation  in  sickness  and  un 
employment,  for  better  citizenship,  better  man- 

[341 


TWENTY-FIFTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

hood,  better  womanhood,  hopefulness  for  child 
hood  and  happiness  in  old  age. 

1916  is  also  the  centenary  of  illuminating  gas. 
I  do  not  mean  gas  of  the  political  orator,  that 
has  existed  ever  since  Grecian  and  Roman 
tunes,  but  the  substitution  of  gas  for  the  can 
dle  and  the  lamp,  for  the  coal  stove  and  the 
oil  burner,  is  one  of  those  discoveries  which 
add  to  contented  and  comfortable  longevity. 
Speaking  of  longevity,  I  had  occasion  to  take 
issue  with  a  citizen  who  a  few  months  ago  re 
tired  from  business  and  gave  up  a  large  salary 
at  sixty.  He  claimed  that  a  man's  powers  be 
gin  to  diminish  at  fifty,  and  before  he  became 
inefficient  and  miserable,  he  should  devote  the 
rest  of  his  life  to  rest  and  recreation.  I  have 
been  a  close  student  of  this  question  for  many 
years.  The  result  of  these  studies  has  con 
vinced  me  that  the  mental,  physical  and  moral 
powers  of  men  and  women  either  grow  or  de 
teriorate;  nothing  stands  still.  One  occupation 
can  be  substituted  for  another,  but  so  long  as 
one  lives,  he  must  have  something  to  do  which 
will  occupy  his  mind  and  his  muscles.  He  can 
not  play  off  his  muscles  against  his  mind  by 
giving  his  days  to  golf  and  his  leisure  to  mental 
rust,  nor  play  off  his  mind  against  his  muscles 
by  giving  his  days  and  nights  to  reading  and 
study  while  he  becomes  anemic  and  an  invalid. 
But  I  make  an  exception  because  we  have  no 
data  covering  that  period.  I  saw  a  few  days 
[351 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

ago  in  the  paper  that  a  Mr.  Britton  of  Plain- 
field,  New  Jersey,  has  been  an  active  citizen 
not  only  in  his  business  but  in  every  depart 
ment  of  the  neighborhood  life  until  he  has 
reached  the  age  of  102.  He  declared  that  then 
he  intended  to  retire  and  devote  the  rest  of  his 
years  to  recreation.  I  have  a  suspicion,  how 
ever,  that  Mr.  Britton  is  making  a  mistake. 
Peter  Cooper's  appearance  on  the  platform, 
with  his  rubber  ring  on  his  arm  upon  which  he 
sat,  when  he  was  in  the  90's,  and  the  active  in 
terest  he  took  in  the  welfare  work  which  was 
the  object  of  the  meeting,  were  inspirations  for 
hope  and  effort  to  the  whole  audience. 

I  had  an  interesting  talk  some  months  since 
with  one  of  the  ablest  jurists  and  most  distin 
guished  Democratic  statesmen  in  the  country. 
I  said  to  him,  "It  is  seldom  that  duty  and  sen 
timent  work  together."  The  occasions  are  rare, 
almost  isolated,  in  public  life  where  partisan 
ship  can  be  laid  aside  and  recognition  given  to 
eminent  merit,  accompanied  by  recognition  of 
the  broadmindedness  and  impartiality  when  he 
had  the  opportunity,  of  the  citizen  to  be  hon 
ored.  Taft  as  President,  following  the  habit  of 
a  lifetime,  was  always  judicial.  The  ambition 
of  his  life  had  been  to  be  upon  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  he  had  for  it 
the  reverence  of  a  distinguished  judge  and  a 
trained  lawyer.  The  ambition  of  every  mem 
ber  of  the  bar  is  to  reach  that  court  and  be  one 
[361 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

of  the  nine  who  constitute  this  wonderful  tri 
bunal.  Three  vacancies  occurred  during  Taft's 
presidency,  one  of  Chief  Justice  and  two  of  As 
sociate  Justices.  He  filled  them  all  with  Demo 
crats,  and  the  highest  place  he  gave  to  a  Demo 
crat  who  had  also  been  a  Confederate  soldier, 
but  whose  eminent  fitness  was  recognized  by 
everyone.  Mr.  Taft  is  now  at  the  zenith  of  his 
powers.  To  have  an  ex-President  who  had  also 
demonstrated  in  a  long  career  eminent  judicial 
qualities  in  that  court,  would  be  something  so 
unique,  so  beyond  all  the  possibilities  of  ever 
happening  again,  that  it  would  arouse  among 
the  people  a  study  of  that  tribunal  and  ac 
quaintance  with  the  wonderful  service  it  has 
done  and  is  doing  for  the  country  and  would 
enormously  strengthen  it  in  the  popular  esti 
mation.  "Do  you  think  it  possible,"  I  said  to 
the  judge,  "that  under  these  conditions,  with 
the  tremendous  pressure  there  will  be,  if  a  va 
cancy  occurs,  from  party  friends  and  party 
leaders,  would  it  be  possible  to  find  reciprocity 
for  this  broadmindedness  of  President  Taft?" 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  disappointment  to 
his  party  friends  caused  by  his  appointment  of 
these  Democrats  was  one  of  the  causes  of  his 
defeat.  The  judge  said,  "If  the  opportunity 
occurs,  I  am  going  to  do  my  best  to  have  the 
President  place  Mr.  Taft  upon  the  Supreme 
Court."  The  vacancy  occurred,  the  judge  was 
eager,  and  associated  with  him  most  of  the  ex- 

[37] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

ecutives  of  the  bar  associations  of  the  United 
States,  but  their  request  was  met  with  the  em 
phatic  statement  that  no  one  but  a  Democrat 
would  be  considered. 

Shakespeare,  St.  George  and  I  were  born  on 
the  twenty-third  day  of  April.  I  said  to  an  em 
inent  authoress,  noted  for  her  seriousness  and  lack 
of  humor, "  Unfortunately  St.  George  and  Shake 
speare  are  both  dead  and  cannot  enjoy  this  an 
niversary  of  theirs  and  mine."  She  answered, 
"But  I  know  that."  This  is  Shakespeare's 
352nd  anniversary  and  my  eighty-second.  No 
mere  mortal  of  any  age,  race  or  country  ever  con 
tributed  so  much  to  the  mentality  of  the  world, 
to  its  culture  and  pleasure,  to  the  inspiration 
of  millions  of  men  and  women,  the  indication 
of  their  careers  and  eminence  in  their  careers, 
as  William  Shakespeare.  It  is  singular  that  he 
is  more  appreciated  and  better  known  in  Ger 
many  to-day  than  in  Great  Britain,  and  as  well 
known  in  France  as  in  England.  His  works  are 
in  the  libraries  of  English-speaking  peoples  all 
around  the  globe,  and  if  there  can  be  in  that 
household  only  two  books,  one  is  Shakespeare. 
We  Americans  can  congratulate  our  country 
that  we  have  contributed  to  the  stage  the  most 
eminent  dramatic  critic  of  the  action  of  Shake 
speare's  plays  of  our  generation,  and  probably 
of  any  generation,  in  the  venerable  William 
Winter,  and  it  was  a  distinguished  contribution 
to  Shakesperean  lore  when  the  professor  of  a 

[38] 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

Nebraska  college  and  his  wife  spent  months 
rummaging  among  the  musty  records  of  the 
law  courts  in  London  and  discovered  these  con 
tracts  and  deeds  reincarnating  Shakespeare  in 
the  daily  activities  of  his  time  and  presenting 
copies  of  his  unique  and  remarkable  signature 
and  his  carelessness  in  spelling  his  name.  I  was 
a  student  at  Yale  when  Miss  Bacon  started  the 
controversy  to  prove  that  Shakespeare's  plays 
were  written  by  Bacon.  Libraries  have  since 
been  filled,  cryptographs  have  been  written  and 
deciphered,  cofferdams  have  been  built  on  the 
Thames  to  find  on  the  bottom  of  that  historic 
river  where  Bacon  concealed  his  original  manu 
scripts,  and  yet  on  his  352nd  anniversary 
Shakespeare  is  better  known  than  he  was  in 
life,  his  reputation  more  secure,  his  authorship 
more  completely  decided,  than  ever  before. 
The  imagination  which  is  Shakespeare  is  not 
Bacon;  the  philosophy  which  is  Bacon  is  not 
Shakespeare.  If,  as  I  believe,  those  who  have 
crossed  the  great  divide  take  cognizance  in  the 
other  world  of  what  is  happening  here,  surely 
on  this  352nd  anniversary  of  Shakespeare's 
birth,  when  it  is  being  celebrated  even  amidst 
the  alarms  and  horrors  of  the  greatest  war  of 
all  time,  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  must  be  view 
ing  the  scene  together,  and  we  can  hear  Bacon 
say,  "William,  my  books  have  gone  out  of 
fashion,  yours  are  more  alive  than  they  were 
when  you  were  on  earth.  If  some  ardent  con- 

[39] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

troversialists  and  enthusiastic  namesakes  of 
mine  had  not  yoked  me  with  you,  I  should  be 
to-day  dead  in  name  and  fame.  I  trust,  Wil 
liam,  with  that  amiability  which  was  your 
characteristic  in  life,  you  will  recognize  that 
this  service  to  me  has  done  no  harm  to  you." 

It  has  been  the  custom  for  many  generations 
in  the  United  States  Senate  to  have  Washing 
ton's  farewell  address  read  from  the  desk  on 
the  twenty-second  of  February.  This  is  done  by 
some  Senator  selected  by  the  Vice-President.  It 
is  always  a  perfunctory  performance.  I  was  the 
chosen  reader  six  years  ago;  the  Senate  and 
galleries  were  crowded,  but  it  was  an  audience 
paying  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  Father  of 
his  Country  and  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
message  which  he  left  his  countrymen.  When 
this  year  that  message  was  read,  it  was  so  apt 
and  applicable  to  the  times  and  conditions  that 
it  seemed  as  if  George  Washington  was  rein 
carnated.  His  advices  as  to  foreign  relations 
and  preparedness  at  home,  not  for  war  but  for 
safety,  were  as  timely  in  1916  as  they  were  in 
1796,  when  he  gave  this  address  to  his  country 
men  and  their  descendants. 

Fifteen  nations,  eight-tenths  of  the  professing 
Christians  and  all  of  the  great  powers  and 
militant  sovereignties  outside  of  the  United 
States  and  the  South  American  republics  are 
slaughtering  each  other,  destroying  property  and 
ruining  civilian  populations.  When  the  war 

[401 


TWENTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

is  over  and  peace  reigns  there  will  be  millions 
upon  millions  of  soldiers  returning  to  bankrupt 
nations  and  shattered  industries  to  earn  their 
living.  Peace  will  be  declared,  but  the  militant 
spirit  will  be  still  mad.  There  will  be  no  regard 
for  treaties  and  none  for  nations  not  able  to 
protect  themselves.  This  country  is  the  great 
prize.  Its  accumulated  wealth,  its  hoarded 
treasures,  its  thriving  industries  will  be  very 
tempting.  Its  navy  is  unequal  to  the  defence 
of  the  coast,  its  harbor  defences  inadequate, 
its  army  insignificant  in  numbers  and  munitions 
of  war  practically  non-existent.  The  big  guns 
invented  during  this  conflict  destroy  cities 
twenty  miles  distant.  Armies  carry  as  part 
of  their  equipment  guns  which  can  shoot  shells 
filled  with  shrapnel  or  poisonous  gases  five 
miles  distant  with  an  accuracy  that  will  hit 
the  mark  intended  within  a  radius  of  one  foot, 
while  the  machine  guns  sweep  every  living 
thing  in  front  of  the  attacking  forces.  I 
cannot  understand  the  pacifist.  I  read  my 
friend  Mr.  Bryan,  who  is  always  attractive  and 
persuasive.  He  says  if  this  invading  force 
should  land,  a  million  farmers  in  their  Fords 
would  meet  them  and  drive  them  into  the 
sea.  I  am  afraid  then  would  be  a  practical 
answer  of  the  suggestion  why  a  Ford  machine 
is  like  a  bathtub,  because  everybody  wants  one 
and  nobody  wants  to  be  seen  in  it.  Our 
friend  Mr.  Ford,  with  the  best  intentions  in 
[411 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

the  world,  would  take  a  committee  of  auto 
mobile  manufacturers  from  Detroit,  a  few 
clergymen  and  suffragettes  and  stand  in  front 
of  the  onrushing  hosts  of  the  enemy  and  say, 
"Boys,  stop,  this  is  not  fair,"  and  of  course 
the  enemy  would  disperse  and  take  to  their 
ships  and  go  back  to  their  homes. 

Preparedness  means  simply  a  navy  sufficient 
and  not  too  great  to  meet  the  enemy  in  the 
open  ocean,  beyond  the  coast  lines,  and  an 
army  which  would  be  equal  to  any  possible 
immediate  attack  and  the  nucleus  around  which 
could  be  gathered  a  force  so  great  that  success 
ful  invasion  would  be  in  the  minds  of  any 
general  staff  of  any  military  country  absolutely 
futile.  Such  preparedness  is  not  aggression, 
nor  is  there  the  slightest  evidence  of  an  aggres 
sive  spirit  among  the  American  people.  Behind 
this  preparedness,  recent  occurrences  and  ex 
periences  have  demonstrated  that  one  of  the 
greatest  duties  of  our  press  and  our  schools, 
of  our  congresses  and  of  our  legislatures,  of 
our  patriotic  men  and  women,  is  to  cultivate 
Americanism. 

The  most  remarkable  development  of  this 
war  has  been  the  revival  of  national  spirit 
and  devotion  to  national  ideals  among  the 
belligerents.  In  Great  Britain  all  parties  are 
welded  into  one.  In  Germany  the  socialists 
stand  side  by  side  with  the  junkers  for  Kaiser 
and  Fatherland.  In  Austria  there  is  a  fierce 
[42] 


TWENTY-FIFTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

nationalism  among  its  many  races  for  the 
first  time  in  generations.  In  Italy  the  people 
forced  the  Government  into  a  life-and-death 
struggle  for  territorial  unity.  The  French  have 
risen  to  heights  of  patriotism  and  universal 
sacrifices  of  life  and  property  for  France  un 
equalled  since  the  Spartan  mother  sent  her  son 
to  battle  with  the  injunction  to  return  with  his 
shield  or  borne  upon  it  by  his  comrades. 
With  us  unprecedented  prosperity,  unequalled 
distribution  of  wealth  to  capital  and  labor, 
and  general  self-satisfaction  and  content  have 
paralyzed  for  the  time  the  traditional  American 
ism  which  counted  the  honor  of  the  Republic 
and  the  safety  of  its  citizens  beyond  all  other 
considerations.  I  have  met  with  men  of  large 
affairs  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  who 
said  we  better  suffer  any  indignity  or  outrage 
rather  than  stop  this  business  boom  by  war, 
and  others  who  echoed  this  surrender  of  honor 
and  right  rather  than  have  their  sons  drawn 
for  battle.  If  the  farmers  who  fought  at  Con 
cord  and  Lexington  had  felt  this  way,  "the 
shot  which  echoed  round  the  world"  would 
never  have  been  fired  and  there  would  have 
been  no  Republic  of  the  United  States.  If  the 
generation  which  brought  to  a  successful  con 
clusion  the  Civil  War,  had  so  valued  their 
citizenship,  a  divided  and  hostile  country 
would  have  taken  the  place  of  a  government 
now  more  than  ever  the  ark  of  liberty  and  the 
[431 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

hope  of  the  world.  A  nation  prepared  to 
defend  or  enforce  its  rights  need  never  have  war. 
Granted  an  adequate  army  and  navy  for  im 
mediate  use,  and  a  nucleus  for  rallying  our 
exhaustless  resources  and  the  potential  power 
of  the  United  States  will  never  be  challenged. 
That  has  been  our  experience  in  the  past, 
with  Austria  in  the  Koszta  case,  with  Louis 
Napoleon  when  our  threat  drove  his  army  out 
of  Mexico,  with  Great  Britain  when  Cleve 
land's  message  forced  arbitration. 

Patrick  Henry's  speech  with  its  peroration 
"give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death/'  Daniel 
Webster's  oration  with  its  soul-stirring  climax, 
"Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and 
inseparable/'  were  for  generations  past  part  of 
our  schoolbooks,  known  by  heart  by  the  school 
boys  and  spoken  in  roadside  schoolhouses  and 
at  every  high-school  and  academy  commence 
ment.  Education  is  the  foundation  of  citizen 
ship,  but  its  overelaboration  has  relegated 
essentials  to  the  rear  and  "ics"  and  "ologies" 
to  the  front.  Let  us  return  to  that  part  of 
the  old  system  which  would  make  eugenics, 
biologies,  social  service,  economic  theories  and 
efficiency  programmes  based  upon  thorough 
grounding  in  patriotism,  country  and  the  mean 
ing  and  spirit,  the  past  and  the  future  of  our 
flag. 


Speech  at  the  Twenty-sixth  Annual  Dinner 
of  the  Montauk  Club  of  Brooklyn,  in 
Celebration  of  Mr.  Depew's  Eighty-third 
Birthday  April  28,  1917. 

Mr.  President  and  Friends: 

In  our  lives,  our  domestic  affairs  and  history, 
we  divide  time  into  quarter-century  cycles, 
twenty-five,  fifty,  seventy-five  and  one  hun 
dred.  Last  year  we  closed  the  twenty-fifth 
of  these  celebrations  which  you  have  given 
hi  honor  of  my  birthday.  That  quarter  of 
a  century  is  packed  away.  When  opened  by 
the  historian,  it  will  prove  to  him  a  mine 
of  incalculable  value  in  development  on  the 
material  and  spiritual  side.  For  us  it  has 
imperishable  memories  of  good  fellowship  and 
good  fellows.  We  enter  now  upon  the  sec 
ond  cycle  toward  the  half  century.  Its  first 
year  threatens  with  destruction  or  changes 
difficult  to  imagine  the  wonderful  advances, 
reformations  and  developments  in  civilization 
during  the  period  of  its  predecessors. 

There  is  no  study  so  fascinating  as  history, 
and  none  so  unreliable.  A  distinguished  econo 
mist  has  said  that  figures  will  not  lie  unless  a 
liar  makes  the  figures.  History  depends  upon 
the  historian,  not  only  on  the  facts  as  he  narrates 
them,  but  upon  the  grouping  which  he  gives  to 

[451 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

them  and  the  lessons  which  he  draws.  Ma- 
caulay  said  substantially  that  all  historians  are 
liars;  he  cited  especially  the  ancients  through 
Thucydides,  Livy,  Tacitus,  Xenophon,  Strabo 
and  Sallust.  They  illustrate  their  stories  by 
speeches  which  they  manufacture  and  put  in 
the  mouths  of  their  statesmen  and  heroes. 
The  only  one  to  whom  Macaulay  gives  absolute 
credence  is  Herodotus,  the  father  of  history. 
Of  course,  we  know  nothing  of  the  period 
except  what  Herodotus  tells  us,  but  this  great 
critic  discovers  internal  evidence  in  the  story 
so  garrulously  told  by  the  old  Greek  of  the 
truth  of  what  he  says  and  finds  confirmation  of 
it  in  the  poems  of  Homer. 

"What  is  history,"  said  Napoleon,  "but  a 
fiction  agreed  upon?"  Certainly  he  made  an 
extraordinary  amount  of  it  in  his  brief  career. 
While  the  difficulties  of  confirmation  surround 
and  throw  doubt  about  ancient  and  mediaeval 
and  in  a  measure  modern  times,  our  American 
history  can  be  subject  to  the  tests  of  memory 
so  recent  and  actors  so  well  known  that  each 
case  can  be  tried  in  court.  It  is  only  one 
hundred  and  forty  years  since  we  began  as  a 
nation.  I  know  of  a  man  whose  father  saw 
Washington  inaugurated  and  was  familiar  with 
the  events  connected  with  the  making  of  our 
Government.  His  son  was  born  when  the 
father  was  past  seventy,  so  you  can  easily  see 
that  the  seventy  years  of  the  father  and  the 
[46] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

same  period  of  the  son  covered  the  whole  range 
from  1776  to  the  present. 

It  is  a  trite  maxim  that  the  great  state  archi 
tects  of  the  past  builded  better  than  they 
knew.  This  may  be  true  of  many  of  them, 
but  certainly  Washington  is  an  exception.  His 
writings  demonstrate  that  he  had  an  almost 
prophetic  view  of  the  future  of  his  country. 
James  Anthony  Froude,  the  historian,  wrote 
an  appreciation  of  Washington  during  the 
Civil  War,  in  which  he  emphasized  that  Wash 
ington  was  no  exception  to  the  rule,  as  the 
State  which  he  created  was  crumbling  in  the 
fires  of  the  Civil  War.  But  events  demon 
strated  that  Washington's  foresight  was  not 
misplaced.  It  showed  that  the  institutions 
which  he  did  so  much  to  found  and  whose 
consolidation  depended  so  greatly  upon  his 
initial  administration  of  the  Government  for 
eight  years,  could  withstand  any  shock,  in 
ternal  or  external.  The  constitution  which 
Washington  as  the  President  of  the  Consti 
tutional  Convention  sent  to  Congress,  with  a 
memorable  message,  alone  of  all  the  constitu 
tions  of  the  century  stands  practically 
unchanged  to-day.  It  is  as  adaptable  as  a 
working  scheme  of  government  to  the-  one 
hundred  millions  of  people  covering  a  continent 
as  it  was  to  the  three  millions  who  at  that  time 
lived  along  the  fringe  of  the  Atlantic.  It  has 
proved  capable  and  beneficent  for  all  the  vast 
[471 


AT    FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

changes,  evolutions  and  revolutions  which  have 
come  from  discovery,  invention  and  education 
during  the  period  of  its  existence. 

We  have  made  a  mistake  in  idealizing  Wash 
ington.  The  further  we  get  from  him,  the  more 
biographers  and  historians  increase  his  stature, 
exaggerate  his  virtues  and  minimize  his  faults. 
We  are  already  approaching  Macaulay's  state 
ment  that  all  historians  are  liars.  No  such 
man  ever  lived  as  the  traditional  Washington. 
It  is  not  wise  for  the  purposes  of  instruction 
and  to  present  examples  for  youth  to  follow, 
to  make  the  hero  impossible.  Years  ago  I 
used  to  read  with  wild  delight  the  fascinating 
stories  which  came  from  time  to  time  before 
the  public  of  the  principal  characters  of  history, 
including  our  own.  The  trouble  with  the 
author  was  that  with  all  their  adventures  his 
heroes  bore  charmed  lives,  and  with  all  their 
temptations  they  committed  no  sins.  There 
is  a  lesson  in  resisting  sin,  as  well  as  in  repenting 
of  it.  Now  and  then  the  average  man  and 
woman  trembles  for  fear  the  perfect  statue 
of  Washington  may  be  mutilated  when  the 
delver  and  explorer  discovers  that  he  had  some 
human  weaknesses. 

As  another  proof  that  witnesses  are  not  all 
dead,  I  heard  from  General  John  Cochrane  a 
story  of  Washington.  General  Cochrane's 
father  was  at  the  head  of  the  Medical  Service 
and  on  the  staff  of  General  Washington.  He 
[48] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

told  his  son  that  the  staff  discussed  whether 
Washington  would  submit  to  the  stories  of  the 
camp.  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  was  the  most 
audacious,  volunteered  to  try.  At  the  'con 
clusion  of  his  effort,  which  was  very  broad,  he 
emphasized  it  by  slapping  the  General  on  the 
back,  saying,  "Old  gentleman,  what  do  you 
think  of  that?"  Washington,  made  no  answer, 
but  arose  and  left  the  room.  The  story  proves 
that  Washington's  idea  of  the  dignity  which 
belonged  to  his  position  was  very  high,  and 
that  he  understood  that  familiarities  of  this 
kind  would  destroy  his  influence  and  prestige. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  know  that  at  the  battle 
of  Monmouth,  when  General  Lee  was  traitor 
ously  suffering  defeat,  Washington  rode  upon 
the  field  and  in  a  towering  rage  called  him  a 
"  damned  poltroon/'  put  him  under  arrest, 
changed  the  tide  of  battle  and  won  the  victory. 
I  knew  an  old  gentleman  many  years  ago  who 
said  that  when  Washington,  as  President,  made 
his  tour  of  New  England,  he  stopped  at  his 
father's  house,  and  that  after  dinner  he  took 
him,  then  a  little  boy,  upon  his  knee  and  sang 
to  him  a  well-known  ballad  of  that  time  called 
"The  Derby  Ram."  The  adventures  of  the 
ram  and  the  greatness  of  the  singer  left  an 
indelible  impression  of  a  real  man  on  the 
memory  of  this  boy. 

Washington  grows  in  stature  with  the  years, 
because  he  was  the  most  all-round  great  man  of 
[491 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

whom  history  speaks.  Von  Moltke  gave  credit 
to  his  New  Jersey  campaign  as  showing  evi 
dences  of  genius  as  a  soldier.  The  testimony  of 
all  his  contemporaries  and  of  the  historical 
facts  as  we  know  them,  demonstrate  that  he 
was  the  foremost  statesman  of  his  period.  In 
private  life  he  was  the  best  farmer,  far  and 
away  ahead  of  all  his  contemporaries,  and  also 
the  ablest  economist.  The  even  superiority  of 
all  his  gifts  prevented  a  spectacular  display  of 
some  quality  which  often  places  a  man  in  the 
first  rank  of  history.  But  the  mental  philos 
ophers  have  now  decided  that  one-sided  genius 
is  a  species  of  insanity.  As  President  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention,  he  brought  its 
deliberations  to  a  successful  close.  By  his 
appeal  through  the  officers  of  his  army  to  the 
different  States,  he  secured  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution.  By  his  administration  of  eight 
years,  he  guided  the  tottering  footsteps  of  the 
infant  Republic  until  it  could  stand  and  go 
alone.  His  farewell  address  is  still  quoted  as 
the  supreme  advice  for  all  critical  occasions. 
It  was  quoted  in  the  Civil  War  to  sustain  the 
Union;  it  has  been  quoted  for  stability  in 
finance  and  credit;  it  is  universally  quoted 
to-day  in  justification  of  preparedness. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  pacifists. 

One-half  the  losses  of  the  Civil  War  were  due 

to  the  Government  being  unprepared  to  sustain 

its   life.     If   Great    Britain   had   been   at   all 

[50] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

prepared,  this  war  would  not  have  happened. 
There  have  recently  been  published  startling 
figures  of  the  losses  in  this  great  conflict. 
They  are  put  in  round  numbers  at  ten  millions 
of  men,  but  the  losses  of  the  Entente  Allies 
have  been  much  greater  than  those  of  the 
Central  Powers,  that  is,  Germany,  Austria, 
Turkey  and  Bulgaria.  Experts  are  united  in 
the  statement  that  this  discrepancy  is  due  to 
the  enormous  slaughter  which  came  to  England 
France  and  Russia  because  of  their  unprepared- 
ness  as  against  the  perfection  of  the  German 
organization. 

Democracy  means  equal  privileges  and  equal 
obligations.  If  we  had  a  system  of  military 
training  like  Switzerland,  we  never  would  have 
a  war.  The  training  itself  would  be  of  in 
calculable  value  to  our  young  men.  It  would 
teach  them  the  lessons  of  discipline  and 
obedience,  and,  above  all  things,  it  would 
impress  upon  them  the  supremacy  of  the  law. 
It  would  promote  democratic  equality  and 
remove  class  prejudices.  In  the  same  tent 
would  be  the  son  of  the  millionaire  and  the 
poor  man,  the  son  of  the  lawyer  and  the 
mechanic,  the  son  of  the  college  professor 
and  the  farmer.  "Comrade,"  with  all  that 
means  of  mutual  understanding,  mutual  help, 
mutual  regard  and  mutual  devotion  to  each 
other  and  the  common  welfare,  would  insure 
the  safety,  peace  and  progress  of  the  Republic. 
[511 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Twenty-three  years  ago,  in  the  second  year 
of  our  anniversaries,  there  was  held  at  Chicago 
the  great  exposition  to  celebrate  the  four 
hundredth  year  of  the  discovery  of  America  by 
Columbus.  In  delivering  the  oration,  I  had 
before  me  125,000  auditors.  The  imperceptible 
movements  of  such  a  vast  crowd  makes  hearing 
difficult.  I  found,  however,  that  it  is  possible 
to  reach  thirty  thousand.  One  can  without 
egotism  speak  of  how  kindly  age  has  treated 
him.  The  speakers  whom  I  have  heard  who 
were  eighty  or  over  have  found  a  weakness  in 
their  vocal  chords,  both  as  to  the  distance  at 
which  they  could  be  heard  and  the  time  they 
could  talk.  I  was  called  upon  suddenly  and 
without  notice  to  speak  at  the  Republican 
National  Convention  in  Chicago  last  June. 
The  great  hall  seated  fourteen  thousand,  and 
several  thousand  more  stood  in  the  aisles  and 
upon  the  platform.  It  was  one  of  the  sur 
prises  as  well  as  one  of  the  pleasures  of  a  life 
time  to  find  that,  past  eighty-two,  the  carrying 
power  and  the  resonance  of  my  voice  were  so 
absolutely  unimpaired  that  I  was  one  of  the 
very  few  who  easily  filled  the  vast  auditorium. 

Next  to  Washington,  Lincoln  is  more  quoted 
in  this  great  crisis  than  any  statesman  in  any 
country.  His  name  is  frequently  heard  in  the 
House  of  Commons  and  in  the  French  Chamber 
of  Deputies.  Asquith  and  Lloyd  George  have 
both  fortified  then*  position  by  Lincoln,  and  so 

[52] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

has  Briand  in  France.  The  most  influential 
of  the  serious  publications  of  Great  Britain  has 
condensed  its  views  and  its  advice  to  Lloyd 
George  on  becoming  practical  dictator  by 
republishing  the  letter  so  wonderful  in  its 
frankness  and  human  nature  of  President 
Lincoln  to  General  Hooker,  when  he  placed 
Hooker  in  supreme  command.  There  is  no 
human  document  like  it. 

We  are  dangerously  idealizing  Lincoln.  His 
last  birthday  a  few  months  ago  was  fruitful  in 
alleged  and  impossible  utterances  and  actions. 
These  utterances  and  actions,  if  Lincoln  were 
alive,  would  make  him  fearful  of  his  fame  and 
wonder  who  the  authors  and  speakers  had  in 
mind.  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  and  with  consider 
able  intimacy  his  surroundings.  I  was  Secre 
tary  of  State  of  New  York  during  part  of  his 
administration  and  much  in  Washington.  I 
was  a  devoted  adherent  and  admirer  of  Lin 
coln's  Secretary  of  State,  William  H.  Seward. 
It  was  also  my  privilege  to  know  well  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  first  evidence  of  greatness  was 
in  placing  in  his  Cabinet  the  most  prominent 
candidates  against  him  for  nomination  for  the 
Presidency  and  also  adding  to  their  number  a 
distinguished  and  uncompromising  Democrat. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  little  known  in  the  country, 
while  Seward  and  Chase  were  household  words. 
Mr.  Lincoln  knew  perfectly  well  that  several 
[53] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

members  of  his  Cabinet  were  constantly  plotting 
to  prevent  his  renomination  and  secure  it  for 
themselves,  and  yet  he  ignored  their  treachery 
and  strove  to  get  from  their  great  abilities  the 
best  administration  of  the  departments  of 
which  they  were  the  heads.  When  the  dis 
loyalty  of  Mr.  Chase  became  so  prominent  and 
pronounced  that  it  could  no  longer  be  ignored, 
instead  of  dismissing  him,  he  made  him  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
We  can  account  as  a  rule  easily  for  self- 
made  men,  but  Lincoln  was  a  miracle.  No 
man  ever  rose  to  such  great  heights  from  such 
unpromising  beginnings  and  surroundings.  He 
had  all  the  strength  of  character,  the  ability 
to  resist  temptation,  the  discrimination  between 
right  and  wrong  and  the  inflexible  loyalty  to  the 
right  which  characterized  the  pilgrim  Puritans 
of  Plymouth  Rock.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
never  rose  above  or  got  away  from,  or  tried  to, 
contact  with  the  plain  people  among  whom  he 
was  born  and  with  whom  he  passed  his  early 
life.  This  discipline  and  experience  were  of 
incalculable  value  when  he  became  President  of 
the  United  States,  because  he  knew  how  the 
average  man  and  woman  would  think  and  act 
in  any  conditions.  The  result  was  that  he 
could  always  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of 
the  crowd  and  overthrow  all  his  adversaries 
by  putting  his  thoughts  into  words  and  illus 
trations  familiar  to  the  ordinary  mind. 
[541 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

There  were  two  Lincolns,  but  wholly  unlike 
Stephenson's  creation  of  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr. 
Hyde.  The  characters  in  this  fiction  are  the 
extremes  of  bad  and  good.  The  two  Lincolns 
were  equally  extreme  and  distant  from  each 
other,  but  both  were  good.  One  was  the  all- 
round  hale  fellow  well  met,  full  of  cordial  sym 
pathy,  possessing  a  limitless  wealth  of  stories, 
a  faculty  of  fitting  his  story  to  the  argument 
so  that  it  destroyed  his  adversary,  and 
sympathy  with  others  characteristic  of  a  big 
and  generous  heart.  He  was  neither  par 
ticular  nor  delicate  about  the  story  if  it  fitted 
the  case,  as  it  always  did.  One  of  the  amusing 
things  of  that  time  when  I  was  in  Washington 
was  the  frequent  revelations  from  the  Cabinet 
of  horror,  dismay  and  indignation  of  the  always 
dignified  and  decorous  Chase  when  the  Presi 
dent  would  convulse  the  Cabinet  and  end  a 
discussion  by  one  of  these  stories.  He  said 
to  me,  and  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated: 
"They  say  I  tell  a  good  many  stories.  They 
say  it  lowers  the  dignity  of  my  office,  but  I  have 
found  in  the  course  of  a  large  experience  that 
plain  people  (and  repeating  with  deep  emphasis 
— plain  people),  take  them  as  you  find  them, 
are  more  easily  influenced  through  the  medium 
of  a  broad  and  humorous  illustration  than  in 
any  other  way,  and  what  the  hypercritical 
few  may  think  I  don't  care." 

The  other  Lincoln  was  a  statesman  and  a 
[551 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

poet,  dominated  by  spiritual  influences,  who 
made  the  most  beautiful  tribute  to  peace 
and  the  necessity  of  successful  war  to  main 
tain  it  in  his  second  inaugural  address,  and 
that  wonderful  prayer  poem  and  oration  com 
bined  which  linked  the  living  with  the  dead 
in  their  hopes  and  aspirations  in  his  Gettys 
burg  address.  Let  us  hope  that  the  historians 
of  the  future  will  not  so  dehumanize  the  most 
human  of  our  Presidents  as  to  present  to  pos 
terity  an  impossible  Lincoln. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  inquiry  what 
books,  or  book,  have  influenced  the  lives  of 
the  readers.  It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  careful  student  of  the  Bible.  His  style 
was  formed  upon  the  wonderful  English  of  the 
Westminster  translation.  The  great  Duke  of 
Marlborough  gained  all  he  knew  of  history 
from  Shakespeare.  He  never  read  anything 
else.  The  Shakespeare  history,  changed,  modi 
fied  and  adapted  for  dramatic  purposes,  was 
probably  quite  as  accurate  as  most  of  the 
histories  of  Marlborough's  period,  and  for  a 
man  of  action,  as  this  great  general  was,  full 
of  inspiration. 

I  had  an  interesting  conversation  with  one 
of  the  most  eminent  British  authors.  He  told 
me  that  of  all  historical  characters,  ancient  or 
modern,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  to  him  the  most 
interesting.  He  said  that  he  had  read  every 
thing  he  could  find  in  regard  to  him,  but 
[561 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

expressed  the  greatest  regret  that  Lincoln's 
partner,  Herndon,  had  ever  put  in  print  his 
reminiscences.  It  was  an  ordinary,  common 
and  rather  sordid  view  of  his  hero  that  he  did 
not  want  to  know.  When  I  read  the  English 
author's  books,  and  he  wrote  several  biographies 
as  well  as  histories,  I  found  that  he  had  idealized 
all  his  characters.  He  had  taken  out  of  them 
the  human  element;  they  were  not  people  with 
whom  one  would  care  to  take  a  journey  or 
spend  an  evening,  and  especially,  live  with. 

When  a  boy  I  read  Parson  Weems'  "Life  of 
Washington."  It  is  the  only  biography  that 
has  the  cherry-tree  story.  Modern  criticism 
and  investigation  have  discredited  the  facts 
narrated  by  Parson  Weems.  They  have  been 
particularly  vigorous  in  overthrowing  the  story 
of  General  Washington  cutting  down  the 
cherry  tree  when  a  boy,  acknowledging  to  his 
father  the  act  and  saying,  "I  cannot  tell  a  lie." 
That  little  narrative  has  quickened  the  wits  of 
all  the  humorists  in  the  world.  It  has  been  the 
inspiration  of  more  sermons,  Sunday  School 
addresses  and  preachments  to  the  young  than 
any  other  anecdote.  Countless  mothers  have 
repeated  it  to  their  children  or  used  it  as  a 
corrective  to  that  testimony  to  moral  depravity, 
the  tendency  of  children  to  lie.  Parson  Weems 
did  a  great  service  to  humanity  when  he 
either  heard  that  story  first  hand  or  dreamed 
it  as  one  of  the  possibilities  of  his  hero. 
[571 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

One  of  the  most  entertaining  and  interesting 
men  I  ever  met  was  Labouchere,  for  many 
years  a  distinguished  member  of  Parliament, 
English  politician  and  editor  and  proprietor 
of  Truth.  He  was  an  attache"  of  the  British 
Embassy  at  Washington  during  Lincoln's  ad 
ministration.  The  British  Ambassador  was 
Lord  Lyons,  one  of  the  most  courteous,  dig 
nified  and  formal  of  men.  The  Ambassador 
frequently  dined  atone,  but  had  all  the  courses, 
ceremonies  and  dress  of  a  formal  dinner. 
Labouchere  said  that  one  evening,  while  dining, 
Lord  Lyons  was  astonished  by  the  butler 
announcing  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Lincoln  followed  the  announcement  into 
the  dining  room  and  took  a  seat.  Lord  Lyons 
was,  of  course,  astonished  and  delighted.  To 
the  request  of  the  host  that  the  dinner  be 
served  in  its  entirety,  the  President  said, 
"No,  Lord  Lyons,  I  came  in  for  an  informal 
talk.  You  go  ahead  with  your  dinner  and  I 
will  brouse  around. "  That  visit  did  not  get  in 
the  newspapers,  nor  is  it  to  be  found  in  the 
archives  of  the  State  Department,  but  it  gave 
the  British  Government,  at  that  time  critically 
near  intervention,  a  better  understanding  of 
the  purposes  of  this  wonderful  President,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  a  clearer  view  of  the  mind  of  the 
British  representative. 

It  has  been  our  habit  to  review  the  events  of 
the  year.  This  year,  however,  has  been  so 

[58] 


TWENTY-SIXTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

full  of  history,  and  the  seeds  of  history,  that 
we  have  not  the  time.  But  there  are  a  few 
things  that  cannot  be  omitted.  One  of  them 
is  the  threatened  railroad  strike  and  its  pos 
sibilities  which  was  a  crisis  in  our  industrial 
life.  It  produced  a  panic  and  bulldozed  Con 
gress  into  hasty  legislation  affecting  the  in 
terests  of  every  man,  woman  and  child  in 
the  United  States.  Like  all  hurried  legisla 
tion,  it  was  faulty,  inaccurate  and  unequal 
to  the  purposes  intended.  We  must  say  for 
the  President,  that  if  Congress  at  the  same 
time  had  enacted  the  whole  of  his  program, 
the  result  of  the  agitation  would  have  been 
permanently  beneficial  to  the  country.  Any 
solution  of  this  great  question  is  difficult,  but 
the  President's  entire  program  took  our  most 
dangerous  and  critical  industrial  element  out 
of  politics  into  the  calmer  region,  and  juster 
one  of  arbitration,  judicial  review  and  decision. 
The  Government  has  wisely  undertaken  to 
regulate  this  great  transportation  system.  The 
evolution  and  devolution  of  this  problem  is 
most  interesting  to  me.  At  first  as  attorney 
of  the  railroads  I  presented  their  case.  In 
arguing  it,  I  became  convinced  that 'not  only 
for  the  public,  but  for  the  railroads  themselves, 
governmental  regulation  was  a  necessity.  Mr. 
William  H.  Vanderbilt,  at  that  time  at  the 
head  of  the  New  York  Central  System,  was  a 
very  wise  and  open  minded  man.  He  has 
[591 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

been  abused  and  misrepresented  to  a  degree, 
but  his  early  life  as  a  farmer  had  brought  him 
in  contact  with  his  fellowmen  in  an  intimate 
way,  and  he  thoroughly  appreciated  and  under 
stood  them.  He  first  said  when  I  presented 
my  view  to  him  that  if  the  commission  system 
became  perfected,  either  the  commission  would 
own  the  railroads  or  the  railroads  would  own 
the  commission.  But  on  more  careful  study 
he  cordially  assented  to  the  commission  system, 
and  assisted  in  its  passage.  The  Government 
has  now,  through  the  commission,  taken  over 
most  of  the  great  functions  of  the  railway, 
especially  its  rates  on  which  it  lives,  and  the 
service  which  it  must  render.  It  must  go  one 
step  farther,  and  have  power  to  arbitrate  all 
labor  disputes  and  to  decide  as  to  their  justice. 
If  the  advance  is  granted  there  must  be  by  the 
same  authority  an  adjustment  of  rates  so  that 
the  railways  can  meet  the  demand  without 
crippling  their  services  to  the  public.  It  may 
take  the  shock  of  a  universal  railway  strike  to 
teach  our  people  the  necessity  of  placing  a  firm 
grip  upon  this  question.  Cities  and  towns, 
villages  and  hamlets,  farmers,  merchants, 
women,  children,  every  home,  factory,  industry 
and  mine  depend  upon  absolute  freedom  in 
the  exchanges  of  the  country.  The  only 
medium  of  this  exchange,  with  the  exception 
of  a  very  limited  relief  by  water,  is  the  rail 
roads.  Stop  them,  and  it  is  like  paralyzing 

[601 


TWENTY-SIXTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

the  nerves  or  cutting  the  arteries  of  an  in 
dividual. 

Within  a  week  after  the  beginning  of  a 
general  strike  every  manufactory  and  mine 
would  be  stopped,  every  man,  woman  and 
child  would  be  out  of  employment,  every  city 
and  village  would  be  without  food,  and  the 
horrors  of  the  European  war  would  be  less 
than  the  suffering  from  this  paralysis.  I  believe 
in  organized  labor.  It  is  as  essential  as 
organized  capital.  But  we  must  draw  the 
line  between  industrial  disputes  ending  in 
strikes,  and  railway  wage  disputes  ending  in 
strikes.  The  employees  of  a  factory  quit,  and 
the  factory  closes.  Its  products  can  be  had 
elsewhere,  the  effects  are  purely  local,  but  if 
the  railways  are  paralyzed,  then  a  small  band 
can  clutch  by  the  throat  a  hundred  millions, 
and  tighten  the  grip  to  suffocation,  and  death, 
if  they  choose.  This  differentiation  creates  the 
necessity  of  the  hundred  millions,  through  then- 
proper  representatives,  controlling  the  situation, 
and  all  who  are  connected  with  its  operations. 

The  young  man  who  enters  the  railway 
service  enlists  in  a  semi-public  army.  His 
position  is  more  permanent,  and  for  equivalent 
work,  better  paid  than  any  other.  He  should, 
on  assuming  the  responsibilities,  remember  that 
he  has  a  duty  to  the  whole  people  as  well  as  to 
the  company.  Unless  he  fully  understands  and 
accepts  these  obligations  he  should  not  go  with 

[611 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

the  railroad,  but  make  his  life  work  in  some 
other  line. 

Among  the  most  difficult  problems  which  the 
Congress  had  to  solve  during  the  past  year 
was  how  to  impose  an  equitable  tax  to  raise 
money  enough  for  the  enormous  and  unprec 
edented    requirements   of  the  public  expendi 
tures.     Some    of   these   were   necessary,    and 
some    of    them    extravagant.      However,    all, 
including   the    pork    barrel,   were    demanded. 
It   is    an   axiom    of    political    economy   that 
the    burdens    of    government    should    be    so 
equally  distributed  that  each,  according  to  his 
means,  must  contribute.    The  true  way  to  curb 
extravagance  and  eliminate  the  pork  barrel  is  to 
have  every  voter  feel  that  he  is  supporting  the 
Government.     If  the  contribution  of  the  indi 
vidual  citizen  is  only  one  dollar  a  year,  he  will 
hold  his  representatives  in  Congress  to  a  rigid 
account  as  to  the  expenditure  of  that  dollar. 
We  are  the  only  great  financial  and  industrial 
nation  which  does  not  possess  a  budget  system. 
Other  governments  submit  to  the  legislative 
body,  with  great  care  and  intelligently  tabu 
lated,  the  requirements  of  the  Government  for 
the   ensuing   year.     We   leave   many   depart 
ments  to  present  their  claims,  and  then  by  a 
system  of  log  rolling  individual  members  or 
senators  combine  to  put  in  what  will  add  to 
their  popularity  and  political  strength  in  their 
districts.     These   combines  have  superb   con- 

[62] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

tempt  for  public  necessities.  It  was  necessary 
under  these  conditions  to  raise  the  enormous 
sum  of  two  billion  dollars  for  the  year.  The 
way  in  which  a  scheme  was  adopted  is  best 
developed  by  a  report  of  the  discussions  of  the 
statesmen  in  conference.  It  was  suggested 
that  the  easiest  tax  to  collect,  and  the  least 
burdensome  was  a  stamp  tax  upon  checks, 
bills  of  exchange,  receipts,  and  other  objects  of 
commerce.  A  senator  said,  "  Never,  because 
every  voter  who  licks  a  stamp  will  say,  'damn 
the  party/  and  we  will  lose  him."  It  was 
then  said  these  world  war  conditions  have  given 
phenomenal  profits  to  copper  mines.  Those 
which  paid  before  are  now  paying  double  and 
quadruple,  and  mines  which  were  worthless 
before  have  become  exceedingly  profitable, 
but  the  representatives  of  the  copper  States 
said,  "If  you  touch  copper  you  lose  our  States, 
which  are  now  safe  in  the  next  election."  So 
copper  was  crossed  out.  Every  proposition 
was  met  and  defeated  by  local  selfish  interests. 
Finally,  one  bright  genius  said,  "Let  us  sock 
it  to  New  York,"  and  the  suggestion  was 
hilariously  adopted.  One-half  the  income  tax 
was  placed  upon  New  York,  and  the  rest  upon 
four  or  five  other  industrial  States.  Pros 
perity  was  penalized,  and  out  of  one  hundred 
millions  of  people,  three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  were  made  to  pay  the  tax.  One- 
half  of  these  are  women  and  estates,  so  only 
[631 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  voters  out  of 
seventeen  millions  sustain  the  Government, 
but  they  have  no  appreciable  voice  in  the  admin 
istration.  The  dozen  or  more  commonwealths 
represented  in  the  conference  pay  practically 
nothing.  It  was  then  suggested  that  they 
impose  an  inheritance  tax.  The  statesmen  who 
wished  their  States  to  receive  all  the  benefits 
they  could  derive  from  being  a  member  of  our 
glorious  Union,  but  at  the  same  time  to  con 
tribute  nothing  toward  the  maintenance  of  the 
Union,  said,  "Let  us  begin  an  inheritance  tax 
at  fifty  thousand  dollars  because  there  are  not 
enough  people  in  our  States  who  die  leaving 
fifty  thousand  dollars  to  affect  our  party  or  our 
re-election."  Edmund  Burke  was  one  of  the 
supreme  intelligences  of  the  past.  He  was  a 
great  statesman,  he  was  one  of  the  few  coura 
geous  men  in  public  life,  who,  knowing  that  he 
was  right,  refused  to  obey  the  instructions  of 
his  constituents,  but  he  went  home  after  his 
vote,  and  succeeded  by  his  broader  view  and 
larger  understanding  of  the  case  in  converting 
them.  Edmund  Burke  uttered  this  great  truism, 
"It  is  as  impossible  to  tax  and  be  popular  as 
it  is  to  love  and  be  wise,"  but  there  were  no 
Edmund  Burkes  in  the  sixty-fourth  Congress. 
Happily,  in  the  new  revenue  bill  of  the  sixty- 
fifth  Congress  there  is  more  of  economic 
wisdom  than  provincialism,  and  more  of  pa 
triotism  than  sectionalism. 
[641 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

No  nation  can  live  without  ideals.  These 
ideals  come  from  folklore,  the  stories  children 
learn  about  the  hearthstone  or  education 
conducted  by  the  State.  The  most  extraor 
dinary  and  wonderful  effect  of  education  in 
all  history  is  the  perfection  of  the  German 
organization.  One  of  the  few  great  construc 
tive  geniuses  of  all  times  was  Bismarck.  His 
ideal  of  the  state  was  divine  right  in  the  throne, 
and  supreme  power  in  the  state  over  life, 
liberty  and  education.  The  individual  must 
be  trained  so  that  he  can  be  the  best  soldier 
primarily,  the  best  artisan,  the  best  writer, 
and  the  keenest  philosopher,  but  all  these  for 
the  development,  the  expansion,  and  the 
power  of  the  government.  When  the  few  who 
govern  decide  that  world  power  for  them 
selves  is  necessary  for  the  state,  and  the  best 
thing  for  the  rest  of  the  world,  this  educa 
tion,  commencing  with  the  kindergarten,  and 
never  stopping,  produces  as  we  see  to-day  a 
solid  and  determined  population  prepared  to 
sacrifice  everything,  to  approve  ruthlessness 
and  frightfulness,  and  breaking  of  treaties  and 
invasion  and  devastation  of  peaceful  countries, 
and  all  other  things  necessary  for  success  be 
cause  their  Kaiser  and  military  staff  want  the 
largest  place  in  the  sun. 

Nineteen  hundred  and  seventeen  will  live 
through  the  ages  as  the  most  tragical  and 
productive  of  years.  It  includes  the  realization 
[65] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

of  nineteen  centuries  of  hope  and  aspirations. 
Ideals  have  become  realities.  The  impossible 
of  the  past  is  the  automatic  function  of  the 
present.  The  Easter  of  the  Cross  was  a 
failure  with  the  world  in  the  thraldom  of 
autocracy,  tyranny  and  despair,  but  its  dynamic 
truth  working  through  war,  revolutions  and 
sacrifices  have  made  the  Easter  of  to-day  the 
millennium  of  liberty. 

It  is  a  glorious  privilege  to  live  now.  Prussian 
militarism  last  year  imprisoned  Liebknecht, 
but  listens  now  to  speeches  in  the  Reichstag 
far  more  revolutionary  than  the  utterances 
for  which  the  Socialist  leader  lies  in  jail.  The 
Chancellor  promises  reforms,  and  the  Kaiser 
says  that  for  kingship  by  divine  right  to  share 
power  with  vox  populi,  vox  Dei,  is  near  his 
heart,  and  intimates  that  it  may  be  a  new 
revelation  of  the  will  of  God.  But  it  may  be 
the  handwriting  on  the  walls  of  the  palace. 

Christianity  has  been  challenged  by  the  world 
tragedy,  but  through  it  the  people  have  found 
theu*  souls. 

Great  Britain  has  awakened  to  effort  and 
sacrifice  for  the  fundamental  rights  of  humanity 
beyond  the  dreams  of  her  most  advanced 
thinkers.  The  thought  and  action  of  an  empire 
in  arms  was  expressed  by  the  dying  soldier. 
Torn  by  shrapnel  and  mutilated  beyond  hope, 
the  Red  Cross  nurse  bent  her  ear  to  receive 
his  last  message  for  the  loved  ones  at  home. 
[66] 


TWENTY-SIXTH    BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

He  was  far  above  that.  This  humble  Tommy, 
one  of  the  millions  fighting  on  many  fronts, 
a  pebble  among  the  sands  on  the  shore  of 
human  effort,  concentrated  the  common  ideal 
of  his  countrymen  around  the  world,  at  home 
and  in  the  colonies  when  he  whispered,  "I 
have  done  my  bit. " 

Evolution  which  developed  by  painful 
processes  through  the  ages  now  materializes 
over  night.  Things  neither  imagined  nor 
dreamed  of  yesterday  are  the  commonplaces 
of  to-day.  If  the  period  of  miracles  has  passed, 
events  which  are  on  the  borderland  of  the 
miraculous  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 

Since  the  formation  of  our  government  the 
representatives  of  the  United  States  have  gone 
to  European  capitals  when  the  subject  was  of 
world  interest.  To-day  is  a  new  epoch  in 
our  history.  We  have  entered  as  an  ally  into 
this  supreme  contest,  and  in  recognition  of  our 
power  and  place  the  special  ambassadors  of 
the  great  nations  meet  in  Washington. 

Two  weeks  ago  Great  Britain  welcomed  the 
entrance  of  the  United  States  into  this  war  for 
liberty,  humanity  and  civilization  by  en 
twining  her  flag  with  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
over  her  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  in  ancient 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral  the  King  and  Queen, 
the  Prime  Minister  and  his  Cabinet  and 
Lords  and  Commons,  the  Navy  and  the  Army, 
the  Church  by  its  head,  the  Archbishop  of 
[67] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Canterbury,  the  Courts  by  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice,  and  the  earth-encircling  empire  of 
self-governing  colonies  by  their  representatives, 
rose  and  sang  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner." 

In  the  other  world,  where  scales  have  fallen 
from  eyes  and  clear  vision  prevails,  the  two 
Georges,  George  Washington  and  George  III, 
must  have  clasped  hands  and  made  the  heavenly 
ether  wave  with  spiritual  cheers. 

I  have  seen  historic  pageants  and  processions. 
The  most  wonderful  and  significant  of  them  all 
was  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  when  the 
Union  Army  marched  past  the  President  and 
Grant  and  Sherman  and  Sheridan  at  Washing 
ton,  the  Union  saved,  to  be  mustered  out  and 
return  to  their  homes  and  peaceful  pursuits 
as  citizens. 

The  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  year,  and  the 
diamond  jubilee  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria 
were  tributes  by  land  and  sea  to  her  as  a 
sovereign  and  woman,  and  the  wonderful 
progress  in  popular  government,  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  and  in  the  expansion  and  develop 
ment  of  the  Empire  during  her  reign. 

But  more  remarkable,  and  equally  significant 
is  this  wonderful  Russian  procession  from 
savage  settlements  beyond  the  Arctic  Circle, 
from  prisons  and  convict  camps,  from  mines 
and  solitary  huts,  of  men  and  women,  of  boys 
and  girls,  on  sledges,  and  on  foot,  hurrying 
through  the  snows  and  biting  cold  of  Siberia 
[68] 


TWENTY-SIXTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

to  home  and  freedom.  The  martyrs  of  liberty 
suddenly  released  from  bondage  and  torture 
by  the  people's  government  as  suddenly  organ 
ized  and  victorious.  The  pomp  and  splendor, 
the  brilliant  uniforms,  the  inspiring  music  of 
other  pageants  are  not  here.  They  are  clothed 
in  rags,  they  are  partly  naked,  they  are  un 
washed  and  unkempt.  Many  have  been  con 
demned  by  court  martial,  more  by  police 
edict  without  trial,  all  by  ruthless  tyranny  for 
daring  to  speak  of  liberty  or  suspected  of 
thinking  of  liberty.  A  free  people  over  night 
without  passion  or  bloodshed  plant  then*  own 
government  upon  the  crumbling  rums  of  a 
thousand  years  of  oppression  and  suppression. 
Old  autocratic  Russia  has  found  her  soul. 

We  reverently  raise  our  hats  to  Cardinal 
Mercier,  and  greet  with  cheers  the  King  and 
Queen  of  the  Belgians,  an  immortal  triumvirate 
worthily  representing  the  indomitable  spirit 
and  courage  of  an  enslaved  and  stricken  people. 

History  has  frequent  records  of  peoples 
struggling  for  freedom.  The  instances  are  rare 
of  nations  fighting  for  their  lives.  The  con 
spicuous  example  of  heroic  death  in  resisting 
the  invader  is  the  three  hundred  who  fell  at 
Thermopylae.  Their  courage  and  fate  have 
inspired  all  succeeding  generations,  and  their 
story  is  ever  fresh  and  absorbing,  as  is  that  of 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  the  maid  of  Orleans.  Future 
historians  will  in  their  equal  valor  and  eager- 

[691 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

ness  to  do  and  die  for  their  country  couple 
France  with  the  Spartan  heroes. 

After  forty  years  of  republican  liberty,  the 
French  people,  men  and  women,  with  un 
equalled  and  unexampled  unanimity  are  giving 
then*  all  to  save  France.  The  story  of  the 
defence  of  Verdun  for  three  years  against  the 
best  organized  and  best  led  army  of  modern 
times  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  inspiring 
chapters  in  the  history  of  heroic  patriotism. 
In  the  devastation,  ruthless  ruin  and  tortured 
population  of  the  villages  and  fields  from 
which  the  enemy  has  been  expelled,  the 
victorious  soldiers  see  the  fate  from  which  they 
saved  the  rest  of  the  country.  France,  thirty 
years  ago,  presented  to  us  the  Statue  of  Liberty 
Enlightening  the  World.  The  light  of  the 
statue  illumines  only  our  harbor  of  New  York. 
The  soul  of  France  shining  through  her  faith 
and  her  work  enlightens  the  whole  world. 

It  is  always  a  privilege  to  be  an  American 
citizen;  now  it  is  a  distinction.  The  Autocrat 
and  the  War  Lord  declare  war  on  short  notice, 
and  then  call  on  their  subjects  to  fight.  Democ 
racies  go  into  war  on  the  deliberate  judgment 
of  the  people  after  every  effort  for  peace  has 
failed.  The  Emperor  of  Austria  gave  Serbia 
twelve  hours,  and  then  began  hostilities.  The 
Emperor  of  Germany  limited  Russia,  France 
and  Belgium  to  a  few  days.  The  United 
States  waited  and  endured,  suffered  and  pro- 
[70] 


TWENTY-SIXTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

tested  for  two  years  and  a  half,  until  Christian 
patience  could  no  longer  be  justified  and 
righteous  wrath  no  longer  restrained.  We 
enter  the  war  to  protect  our  fundamental 
rights  and  liberties,  and  to  win  peace  upon  a 
basis  so  sure  and  permanent  that  people  can 
live  their  lives  and  enjoy  their  liberties  un 
molested  in  this  world.  It  is  a  war  for  free 
dom  and  humanity.  When  peace  comes  with 
victory,  if  there  are  questions  of  territories, 
we  want  none;  if  indemnities  are  demanded, 
we  will  not  share.  It  is  a  glorious  result 
that  the  English-speaking  peoples  of  the  world 
are  of  one  faith  and  fighting  for  common  ideals. 
Americans,  English,  Irish,  Scotch,  Welsh, 
Canadians,  Australians,  New  Zealanders  and 
South  Africans  are  united  to  end  forever  the 
doctrine  that  might  makes  right.  All  English- 
speaking  people  have  a  common  heritage  in 
Magna  Charta  and  the  Bill  of  Rights,  and  the 
results  of  the  revolutions  which  have  democ 
ratized  the  institutions  of  Great  Britain.  But 
we  Americans  have  contributed  immortal  prin 
ciples  of  liberty  in  which  they  all  equally  share. 
In  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  a  little  band 
adopted,  and  now  most  of  the  world  acclaims, 
"a  government  of  just  and  equal  laws."  One 
hundred  and  fifty-six  years  of  the  development 
and  practice  of  this  idea  produced  the  im 
mortal  Declaration  of  Independence,  "that  all 
men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed, 
[71] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

by  their  Creator,  with  certain  inalienable 
rights,  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness."  After  seven  years 
of  war  had  gained  us  our  independence,  the 
Republic  was  built  on  this  foundation:  "We, 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice, 
insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the 
common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare, 
and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves 
and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this 
Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America. " 
What  of  the  future?  We  will  improve  the 
education  and  training  of  the  rising  generation. 
The  schools  will  be  more  practical  in  fitting  the 
boys  and  girls  for  their  vocations  in  life.  God 
and  country  will  be  so  instilled  in  their  minds 
and  hearts  that  their  visions  and  ideals  will  be 
to  protect  and  improve  the  Government  which 
is  wholly  theirs.  Our  Government  has  not 
kept  step  with  the  necessities  of  our  growth  and 
expansion.  While  our  foreign  trade  and  the 
markets  required  by  our  increasing  production 
have  been  created  or  enlarged  by  adventurous 
Americans,  they  have  been  denied  protection, 
and  informed  by  the  authorities  that  they  ought 
to  have  stayed  at  home.  The  shackles  of 
provincialism  are  broken,  and  the  American 
who  is  in  foreign  lands  the  agent  of  our  pros 
perity  will  have  behind  him  in  his  rights  the 
power  and  prestige  of  his  country  and  his  flag. 
[721 


TWENTY-SIXTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

The  dominant  sentiment  of  the  world  will  be 
for  peace,  peace  maintained  by  democratic 
nations  working  together  to  keep  and  enforce 
it.  President  Wilson  has  stated  the  position 
and  purpose  of  the  United  States  in  an  address 
to  Congress  and  the  country  worthy  of  the  best 
traditions  of  American  statesmanship.  In  the 
inspiration  of  the  hour  all  differences,  racial, 
national  or  political,  have  disappeared,  and  our 
whole  people  are  one  for  justice,  liberty  and 
humanity.  The  tragedies  of  this  war  are  fright 
ful,  but  as  the  Divine  purpose  is  revealed  we 
reverently  see  how  great  and  yet  how  light  the 
cost  for  a  redeemed  world. 

"For  Freedom's  battle,  once  begun, 
Bequeath'd  by  bleeding  sire  to  son 
Though  baffled  oft,  is  ever  won." 


73] 


Speech  at  the  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Cele 
bration  of  the  Montauk  Club  of  Brooklyn, 
in  Honor  of  Mr.  Depew's  Eighty-fourth 
Birthday,  April  27,  1918. 

My  Friends: 

This  is  the  twenty-seventh  year  in  succession 
that  you  have  honored  my  birthday.  These 
celebrations  are  unique  among  club  entertain 
ments  and  I  know  of  no  other  case  anywhere 
like  this.  Club  memberships  are  variable  and 
changing  from  year  to  year,  but  no  matter 
what  the  changes,  there  has  never  been  any 
diminution  of  the  sentiment  which  led  this 
organization  twenty-seven  years  ago  to  give 
me  this  most  gratifying  of  compliments — a 
commendation  of  the  past,  a  cordial  recognition 
of  the  present  and  a  hopeful  Godspeed  for  the 
future. 

There  is  nothing  that  prolongs  life  more  than 
having  an  object  to  live  for.  This  affects  the 
will,  and  it  is  the  common  experience  of  doctors 
that  the  will  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  death. 
The  mother  is  pronounced  hopeless,  but  she 
says,  "I  will  live  until  my  son  returns." 
Against  all  the  predictions  of  her  medical 
advisers,  that  son  circles  the  globe  and  arrives 
in  time  to  receive  the  blessing.  The  proof 
that  it  was  the  will  power  that  sustained  his 

[74] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

mother  is  that  she  rarely  lives  an  hour  after 
the  purpose  for  which  she  has  made  this 
tremendous  exertion  has  been  accomplished. 
Many  a  man  of  an  intense  partisanship  has 
made  a  vow  that  he  would  not  shave  or  cut 
his  hair  until  his  favorite  was  elected  President. 
With  that  sacrifice  of  his  personal  appearance, 
is  a  determination  to  see  the  inauguration  of 
his  political  idol.  The  more  repulsive  he  grows 
and  the  more  annoying  the  curiosity  of  all 
whom  he  meets,  the  more  bitter  is  his  determina 
tion  to  live  until  he  can  celebrate  the  event 
by  appearing  in  a  normal  way  among  his 
neighbors  and  friends. 

A  period  like  this,  covering  nearly  a  third  of 
a  century,  is  full  of  reminiscence.  All  who  have 
passed  the  middle  period  live  largely  in  mem 
ory.  We  do  not  appreciate  how  much  of  the 
conversation  of  the  world  is  made  up  of  reminis 
cences.  With  most  people  who  have  achieved 
any  distinction  or  won  any  honors,  their  lives 
and  their  talk  begin  at  the  point  of  the  first 
decoration.  You  never  meet  a  successful  Tam 
many  man  who  does  not  in  a  few  minutes  say, 
"Well,  that  reminds  me  of  when  I  was  first 
elected  to  the  Board  of  Aldermen."  A  rural 
magnate  tells  you,  "That  recalls  the  year  I 
was  a  member  of  the  legislature. "  And  so  in  a 
larger  way  from  Congressman  to  Senator,  from 
Senator  to  Cabinet,  Cabinet  to  the  Presidency. 
The  authors  of  these  reminiscences  are  not 

[75] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

consciously  bragging  that  they  have  held  these 
positions.  At  the  same  time,  they  want  you  to 
know  that  they  have  and  not  to  forget  it.  This 
sentiment  invades  the  social  sphere.  I  remem 
ber  visiting  a  family  very  well  placed  socially, 
but  not  high  enough  to  receive  the  recognition 
of  the  social  leader,  which  they  greatly  craved. 
One  day  the  social  leader  called  and  stayed 
to  luncheon.  Ever  afterwards,  when  I  would 
make  any  remark  of  the  view  from  their  house 
or  of  the  beauty  of  their  grounds,  both  husband 
and  wife,  almost  simultaneously,  would  say, 
"Well,  now  when  Mr.  A.  was  here,  standing 
where  you  do,  he  made  a  similar  remark,  but 
he  pointed  out  that  particular  bush  or  tree  or 
vista. "  When  I  called  the  next  year,  I  received 
the  same  statement  of  what  had  happened  on 
that  memorable  occasion  in  their  lives  when 
Mr.  A.  stayed  to  luncheon  and  praised  what 
nature  had  done  for  their  country  seat  and 
what  they  had  accomplished  themselves.  In 
fact,  their  life  began  with  that  visit  and  there 
was  nothing  which  interested  them  in  the  years 
preceding  or  in  those  which  followed. 

I  was  traveling  through  a  western  state,  on  a 
railway  inspection  tour,  when  at  one  of  our 
stopping  places  the  leading  citizens  came 
around.  What  I  wanted  to  know,  of  course, 
were  the  things  relating  to  the  neighborhood 
which  were  of  interest  or  of  promise  in  our 
railway  traffic,  and  how  the  railway  could 
[761 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

stimulate  the  activities  of  the  neighborhood  and 
its  tributary  territory.  But  the  leading  citizen 
would  keep  constantly  sidetracking  my  efforts, 
while  he  recalled  what  occurred  when  he  was 
a  United  States  Senator,  many  years  before,  a 
fact  which  very  few  remembered  but  himself. 

This  tendency  to  reminiscence  has  given  to 
the  world  much  entertaining  and  valuable 
history.  It  is  a  sort  of  literature  in  which  the 
English  excel,  the  French  following  close  after. 
No  English  diplomat  or  statesman  would  think 
of  dying  until  he  had  published  his  volume  of 
recollections.  The  same  way  in  France  with 
their  men  of  letters.  It  has  been  essayed  several 
tunes  in  the  United  States,  not  always  success 
fully.  The  first  attempt,  and  the  best,  was 
the  autobiography  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  books,  and 
the  most  informing.  But  Franklin's  life  was  a 
marvelous  one  and  he  was  one  of  the  most 
striking  characters  of  his  generation,  or  of  any 
period.  A  distinguished  English  author  has 
stated,  I  think  Matthew  Arnold,  that  he  regards 
him  as  the  greatest  intellect  of  the  English- 
speaking  race.  No  praise  was  ever  so  high, 
when  we  think  of  Milton,  Shakespeare,  Bacon 
and  other  great  lights  of  our  language. 

General  Grant's  autobiography  was  a  success, 

in  fact  the  greatest  financial  success  of  any 

book   ever   published   in   America,    but   it   is 

intrinsically  of  the  highest  value  both  as   a 

[77] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

revelation  of  the  man  and  of  a  story  of  the  most 
critical  period  in  our  history.  It  was  written 
under  the  most  dramatic  and  tragic  circum 
stances.  He  had  been  stricken  with  a  fatal 
disease,  and  knew  it,  but  the  will  power  which  I 
have  mentioned  carried  him  through  until  he 
had  completed  the  book.  I  heard  that  he 
contemplated  going  to  Mt.  McGregor,  near 
Saratoga,  and  called  at  his  house  to  arrange 
for  a  special  train  to  take  him  up  there  with 
all  possible  comfort.  He  expressed  a  desire 
to  see  me,  and  as  I  was  ushered  into  his  study 
he  was  busily  engaged  upon  his  book.  His 
voice  was  then  almost  gone  because  of  the  cancer 
in  his  throat,  but  he  immediately  began  to 
ask  me  questions,  and  especially  expressed  a 
desire  for  stories  or  reminiscences  which  would 
relieve  the  strain  of  his  work.  In  a  little  while 
he  said,  "That  reminds  me,"  and  I  knew  then 
I  was  to  be  the  fortunate  possessor  of  a  story 
from  the  most  reticent  of  men.  This  story  is 
pertinent  to  the  prohibition  sentiment  which  is 
now  sweeping  over  the  country.  The  General 
said,  "One  of  the  most  interesting  men  I 
ever  knew  was  U.  S.  Senator  James  W.  Nye 
of  Nevada.  He  had  the  largest  fund  of 
anecdotes  and  told  them  better  and  he  was  one 
of  the  best  of  political  speakers.  I  persuaded 
him  to  stump  the  country  for  me.  In  telling 
me  of  his  adventures,  he  said  that  he  stopped 
at  a  large  manufacturing  town  in  New  England 

[781 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

and  was  entertained  by  the  leading  citizen  and 
manufacturer.  The  man  lived  very  handsomely, 
his  dinner  and  also  the  supper  afterwards  were 
all  that  could  be  desired  as  to  food,  but  water 
was  the  only  drink.  Nye  was  a  bonvivant  and 
thought  little  of  any  entertainment  that  did 
not  have  wine.  The  Senator  said,  'After  a 
long  speech  and  then  talking  to  all  the  magnates 
of  the  neighborhood,  I  went  to  bed  dry  as  a 
powderhorn.  I  could  not  sleep,  and  as  soon 
as  it  was  daylight,  I  went  down  into  the  dining 
room.  As  I  sat  there  the  mistress  of  the  house 
came  in  and  said,  "  Senator,  you  are  up 
early."  I  said,  "Yes,  living  in  the  West  so 
long,  I  am  afflicted  with  malaria  and  I  could 
not  sleep."  She  went  over  to  a  tea-caddy, 
took  out  a  bottle  and  said,  "Senator,  this  is 
a  prohibition  town,  you  know,  but  we  have 
malaria  and  I  find  this  a  good  antidote.  I 
know  it  will  do  you  good."7  The  Senator 
seized  the  bottle  with  avidity  and  thankful 
ness.  He  settled  again  in  his  seat  by  the 
window,  more  in  harmony  with  the  world. 
Then  the  head  of  the  house  came  in  and  said, 
' Senator,  you  are  up  early/  He  said,  'Yes, 
malaria,  you  know.7  'Well/  said  the  old 
gentleman,  'we  have  a  cure  for  that.  This 
is  a  prohibition  town;  it  is  a  good  thing  for  our 
work  people;  but  I  have  a  little  safety  in  my 
locker/  and  he  produced  a  bottle.  After  the 
old  gentleman  left,  the  two  sons  came  in  and 
[79] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

said,  'Senator,  are  you  fond  of  live  stock? ' 
The  Senator  by  that  time  was  fond  of  every 
thing  and  everybody.  He  said,  'Yes,  I  love 
live  stock.  I  have  plenty  of  it  on  my  ranch/ 
They  said,  'Come  out  to  the  barn  and  we  will 
show  you  some/  They  took  him  out  to  the 
barn,  closed  the  doors,  and  said,  'Senator, 
we  know  you  must  have  had  a  hard  time  last 
night.  We  have  no  live  stock,  but  we  have  a 
bottle  in  the  haymow."  Senator  Nye  then 
said  to  the  General,  "The  trouble  with  a 
prohibition  town  is  that  when  you  most  need 
it  you  can't  get  it,  and  when  it  does  come  it  is 
like  a  western  flood,  too  much  of  it. " 

I  find  in  reading  reminiscences  that  the  best 
are  by  men  who  have  kept  close  diaries.  I  have 
just  been  reading  two  most  interesting  volumes 
of  John  Morley.  The  greater  part  is  made  up 
of  extracts  from  a  diary,  apparently  not  cor 
rected,  and  from  letters  of  which  he  had  kept 
copies.  The  diary  and  the  letters  tell  in  an 
interesting  way  the  whole  story  of  the  trials, 
struggles  and  successes  of  one  of  the  most 
influential  men  of  his  time,  of  great  questions 
whose  decisions  rested  always  largely  with 
him,  and  of  interesting  people  whom  he  met. 
It  is  the  regret  of  my  life  that  I  neglected  to 
make  these  daily  memoranda.  There  is  hardly  a 
month,  commencing  with  my  entrance  into  the 
legislature  as  a  member  fifty-six  years  ago, 
which  has  not  been  crowded  with  conversations 

[80] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

and  incidents  all  of  moment  at  the  time  and 
many  of  them  anecdotes  and  adventures  which 
would  have  made,  at  least  for  my  children, 
most  interesting  and  entertaining  volumes. 
It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  know  many 
royalties,  statesmen  and  men  and  women 
worth  while  during  the  last  sixty  years.  The 
overlapping  and  overcrowding  of  the  events 
of  a  busy  life  make  it  impossible  to  recall. 
As  an  instance,  I  made  it  a  rule  many  years 
ago  that  dinner  was  to  be  free  from  anxiety 
and  if  possible  full  of  pleasure;  it  was  to  be 
the  one  period  when  the  wrinkles  of  the  day 
were  ironed  out,  when  its  troubles  were  for 
gotten  and  the  largest  measure  of  happiness 
and  content  carried  one  through  the  evening 
and  to  bed.  My  two  rules  were  that  if  there 
was  anything  sad  which  had  happened,  a  mis 
fortune,  an  illness,  a  death,  it  must  be  post 
poned  until  morning.  The  other  was  that, 
out  of  the  happenings  of  the  day,  I  should 
take  home  a  story  which  would  carry  off  the 
evening.  When  you  are  looking  for  such 
instances  and  have  cultivated  their  humor  or 
their  value,  it  is  astonishing  how  many  occur, 
and  equally  astonishing  how  rapidly  they  are 
forgotten. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  I  knew  several  soldiers, 

veterans  of  the  Revolutionary  War.     One  of 

them  was  my  grandfather.     Their   talk  was 

entirely    of    their    adventures    in    that    great 

[81] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

struggle,  and  their  life  began  and  ended  with 
the  Revolution.  If  you  have  ever  met  a  group 
of  Grand  Army  men,  you  find  the  same  thing 
is  true  with  them.  Our  American  history  can 
easily  be  divided  into  a  few  great  periods.  It 
is  marvelous  how  little  we  remember  and  how 
little  we  know  about  them.  The  first  period 
was  from  the  election  of  George  Washington 
to  the  War  of  1812.  That  gave  us  freedom  of 
the  seas,  and  then  came  the  wonderful  mari 
time  development  up  to  the  close  of  the 
Mexican  War,  in  fact  until  the  Civil  War. 
From  the  Civil  War  down  to  the  second  election 
of  Wilson  was  the  era  of  industrial  development 
and  financial  experiments  and  triumphs. 

These  anniversaries  have  passed  through  the 
administrations  of  Cleveland,  McKinley,  Roose 
velt,  Taf  t  and  Wilson.  The  repeal  of  the  Silver 
Purchase  bill,  which  was  the  great  event  of 
Cleveland's  administration,  which  ruined  him 
with  his  party  and  led  to  his  retirement  per 
manently  from  public  life,  but  which  is  a  monu 
ment  to  his  fame,  seems  now  as  distant  almost 
as  Columbus'  discovery  of  America.  Nobody 
now  recalls  or  cares  about  the  gold  standard 
which  won  the  election  of  McKinley.  When 
it  was  found  that  the  silver  craze  had  died  out 
and  the  people  had  been  educated  to  a  currency 
based  upon  gold,  in  harmony  with  the  great 
financial  countries  of  the  world,  there  was  a 
mighty  controversy  as  to  who  was  the  author 
[82] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

of  that  plank  in  the  platform  enunciated  at  the 
convention  which  nominated  McKinley.  The 
claimants  were  many  and  the  evidence  which 
they  produced  was  in  every  case  convincing. 
Senator  Foraker,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions,  has  devoted  half 
of  one  of  his  volumes  of  reminiscences  to  proving 
that  all  these  claimants  are  liars  and  frauds. 
Like  most  such  planks  which  are  with  difficulty 
adjusted  into  a  party  platform,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  this  particular  and  much  controverted  one 
was  placed  there  after  much  discussion  and 
many  fears  and  doubts.  It  was  really  an  evolu 
tion,  slowly  crystallizing,  without  any  appre 
hension  at  the  time  that  it  was  to  be  almost 
the  sole  and  successful  issue  of  the  canvass. 
For  half  a  century  we  have  been  wrestling 
with  what  seemed  to  us  vital  problems  of 
trade,  transportation,  finance  and  government 
control  of  them;  we  have  given  our  time  and 
money,  we  have  marched  in  processions,  made 
speeches,  written  articles,  carried  torches  with 
the  leaking  oil  from  the  lamps  running  down  our 
backs,  and  all  because  we  believed  the  success 
of  certain  measures  was  necessary  for  the  safety 
of  the  Republic.  We  did  not  fight,  bleed  and 
die  in  vain.  Undoubtedly  there  was  some 
progress,  but  how  little  it  all  seems  to-day. 
The  libraries  are  filled  with  the  literature  of 
the  current  political  questions  of  the  last 
half  century,  the  Congressional  Record  fills 

[83] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

innumerable  shelves  and  in  its  pages  are  the 
speeches  of  the  Senators  and  Congressmen. 
The  whole  of  that  literature  will  rest  for  the 
future  upon  shelves  from  which  it  is  rarely 
taken  except  by  the  curiosity  seeker  and  the 
antiquarian.  No  one  will  be  interested  in  the 
result  of  his  researches. 

Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  this  over 
whelming  tragedy  through  which  we  are  passing 
will  obliterate  all  past  history?  We  feel  it 
already.  History  will  date  from  June,  1914. 
The  literature  which  the  world  tragedy  will 
inspire  will  be  our  reading  matter  for  the 
future.  During  these  three  years  and  a  half 
there  is  no  part  of  the  sixteen  hundred  millions 
of  people  who  inhabit  this  earth  who  have  not 
felt  its  effects.  More  than  a  thousand  millions 
of  them  have  been  directly  concerned.  Accord 
ing  to  the  latest  estimates,  fifty  millions  of 
people  have  died  not  alone  in  battle,  but  mainly 
by  starvation  and  hardships  in  the  devastated 
countries.  Fifty  millions!  Equal  to  one-half 
the  population  of  the  United  States  have  been 
blotted  out  by  this  war.  The  debts  of  the 
various  countries  in  1913  were  about  twenty 
billions  of  dollars.  They  were  a  staggering 
load  to  all  the  countries  but  the  United  States. 
A  financial  expert  has  estimated  that  by  the 
end  of  the  year  1918,  these  debts  will  amount 
to  one  hundred  and  sixty  billions.  Germany's 
appropriations  for  all  purposes,  civil  and  mili- 
[841 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

tary,  the  army  and  the  navy,  were  in  1913 
between  eight  and  nine  hundred  millions.  The 
interest  charge  alone  upon  her  present  debt  at 
five  per  cent,  is  sixteen  hundred  millions. 
If  we  add  to  that  one  thousand  millions  for  her 
civil  and  military  necessities  her  taxation  will 
rise  from  eight  hundred  millions  to  two 
thousand  six  hundred  millions  if  the  war  should 
close  now.  The  increase  is  quite  as  large 
for  all  the  other  countries.  The  entire  wealth 
of  Belgium,  Northern  France,  Serbia,  Armenia 
and  Poland  has  been  practically  wiped  out. 
There  must  be  in  the  financial  settlement  a 
realignment,  restoration  and  reparation  that 
staggers  the  imagination.  We  thought  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  that  a  debt  of  four  bil 
lions  would  be  a  burden  so  great  as  to  keep 
us  under  the  harrow  for  generations.  The 
thrift,  energy,  enterprise  and  genius  of  our 
people  and  our  vast  resources,  rapidly  devel 
oped,  negatived  all  these  prophecies. 

We  have  been  more  than  a  year  in  this  war, 
but  we  have  already  spent  and  loaned  over 
twenty  billions  of  dollars.  When  the  re 
organization  and  reconstruction  are  completed, 
there  will  be  a  new  era  in  this  world,  with  new 
problems.  The  vital  things  of  the  past  will 
have  no  relation  to  the  present,  and  in  the 
evolution  of  industry  the  undreamed  of  former 
times  will  be  the  realities  of  the  hour.  Every 
nation  will  be  too  absorbed  in  its  sorrows,  its 
[851 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

losses,  its  burdens,  the  problems  of  its  recon 
struction  and  of  its  relations  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  and  its  future  safety  to  care  for  the 
past  which  preceded  this  war. 

Homer  pictured  the  heroes  and  the  con 
ditions  of  his  period  so  graphically  and  with 
so  much  of  our  common  human  nature  that  his 
epic  has  survived  the  centuries.  Dante  did 
the  same  for  his  time,  and  Shakespeare 
visualized  his  period.  In  Rousseau,  Mill, 
Spencer  and  Emerson  we  can  find  the  creation 
and  crystallization  of  ideals  for  whose  preser 
vation  most  of  the  civilized  world  is  fighting. 

There  are  thirty-seven  millions  of  men  on  the 
battle  fronts  in  all  the  continents  and  seven 
seas  of  the  world.  The  problem  of  their  ab 
sorption,  after  the  discipline  and  experience 
of  the  camp,  in  the  economic  life  of  nations,  is 
to  be  one  of  the  most  serious  which  ever  engaged 
the  attention  of  statesmen.  Therefore  I  believe 
this  new  world  will  be  wholly  absorbed  in  its 
statesmanship  and  its  literature,  with  a  world 
which  has  been  devastated  and  is  to  be 
recreated. 

The  dream  of  the  socialists,  a  government 
controlled  by  the  principles  of  Karl  Marx, 
was  realized.  They  had  their  opportunity. 
They  had  Russia  with  her  great  armies,  un 
limited  resources  and  absolute  power.  They 
killed  or  imprisoned  those  who  disagreed  with 
them,  they  arbitrarily  suppressed  the  press, 
[861 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

they  confiscated  property.  They  tried  to  destroy 
the  Church  and  its  influence  and  ruled  more 
arbitrarily,  autocratically  and  tyrannically  than 
the  Czar  and  the  bureaucracy  which  were  over 
thrown  by  the  revolution.  On  the  theory  that 
internationalism  is  to  succeed  nationalism, 
they  disbanded  the  Russian  armies  and  navy 
and  signed  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Germany 
without  reading  its  terms,  under  which  the 
ports  of  Russia,  her  mines  and  wheat  fields 
and  vital  resources  and  territories,  which  made 
her  a  great  power  in  the  world,  were  surrendered 
to  the  enemy.  Anarchy  and  chaos  instead  of 
law  and  justice  rule  a  helpless  people.  Truly, 
in  the  great  settlement  which  makes  the  world 
safe  for  Democracy,  Democracy  must  be  made 
safe  for  the  world. 

The  German  socialists,  upon  whom  Lenine 
and  Trotzky  relied,  were  as  eager  as  the  Junkers 
and  military  aristocracy  for  the  spoil  and  loot 
of  Russia.  The  experiment  has  demonstrated 
that  the  safety,  liberty  and  prosperity  of  any 
nation  is  in  the  patriotism  of  its  people,  even 
if  need  be  to  the  limit  of  old  Commodore 
Decatur's  toast,  "Our  Country!  In  her  inter 
course  with  foreign  nations  may  she  always 
be  in  the  right;  but  our  country,  right  or 
wrong. " 

It  was  the  proud  boast  of  Hindenburg  that 
he  would  be  in  Paris  on  the  first  of  April. 
His  entrance  into  the  fallen  city  was  to  impose 
[87] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

upon  it  crushing  taxes,  to  carry  off  its  priceless 
art  treasures,  to  overawe  France  and  seize  its 
accumulations  of  centuries  for  the  pride  and 
enrichment  of  the  Kaiser  and  his  favorites. 
Autocracy  triumphant  was  to  reduce  the 
French  people  to  industrial  slavery  and  per 
petuate  military  and  autocratic  control  of  the 
German  people.  The  last  glimmering  ray  of 
liberty  in  Europe  was  to  be  extinguished  and 
all  nations  feel  the  force  of  German  power. 

If  the  American  army  enters  Berlin  its 
historic  monuments  and  art  treasures  will  be 
safeguarded,  its  houses  and  shops  protected 
and  its  women  treated  with  respect  and 
courtesy.  The  German  people  will  be  sum 
moned  to  form  a  government  by  the  popular 
will  in  any  form  they  wish,  but  upon  lines 
which  will  for  the  present  and  future  remove 
the  threat  of  a  militarism  that  imperils  the 
peace  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  most  curious  and  interesting  of 
the  efforts  of  the  last  forty  years  has  been  the 
movement  for  peace.  I  found  traveling  on 
the  same  ship  when  I  went  to  Europe  over 
thirty  years  ago  a  peace  delegation  from  the 
United  States  to  a  congress  which  was  to  meet 
in  London.  I  told  Mr.  Gladstone  about  it 
and  he  said  the  whole  idea  was  absurd,  with 
over  seven  million  men  in  arms  in  Europe 
alone.  The  convention  met,  but  the  London 
papers  did  not  regard  it  of  sufficient  importance 
[88] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

to  note  its  presence.  All  efforts  for  peace 
during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  now, 
emanate  from  Germany.  With  the  rest  of  the 
world  they  have  been  and  are  genuine  and 
humane.  With  the  Prussian  General  Staff  there 
have  been  and  are  shrewd  attempts  with  a 
vast  propaganda  to  lull  the  world  to  sleep 
while  German  autocracy  and  militarism  were 
preparing  for  its  conquest.  The  Hague  Tribunal 
originated  with  the  Czar.  The  nations  entered 
it  honestly  and  with  hope,  except  Prussia,  who 
carefully  and  very  ably  avoided  committing 
herself  to  anything.  The  result  of  this  propa 
ganda  was  general  unpreparedness.  England 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war  could  send 
to  the  continent  only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men.  Our  own  situation  was  utter 
unpreparedness  in  trained  men  or  munitions 
or  any  of  the  elements  necessary  for  the  prose 
cution  of  war.  The  safety  of  the  world  depended 
upon  France.  The  Kaiser  compelled  her  to 
dismiss  Delcasse,  her  Foreign  Minister,  whom 
he  discovered  alone  among  statesmen  of  Europe 
saw  and  was  trying  to  meet  Germany's  am 
bitions.  He  appealed  to  Queen  Victoria  to 
eliminate  France  as  a  danger  to  the  British 
Empire,  but  met  with  a  flat  refusal.  He 
started  to  take  away  from  France  Morocco, 
and  did  succeed  in  alienating  a  large  part  of 
her  African  colonies.  This  constant  threat  of 
the  German  army  always  close  to  the  border, 
[891 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

and  often  over  the  line,  aroused  the  fears  of 
the  French  Republic,  so  that  alone  of  European 
nations  outside  of  Germany  she  had  for  her 
defense  an  army  of  nearly  a  million  of  men. 
It  was  this  army  as  a  nucleus  and  the  prepara 
tions  by  which  it  could  be  recruited  and 
supplied  with  war  material  which  said  to  the 
German  invasion  at  Verdun,  "You  shall  not 
pass,"  and  at  the  Marne  saved  for  the  world 
liberty  and  Christianity. 

In  the  meantime,  while  all  nations  were 
seeking  peace  and  every  organ  of  public  opinion 
preaching  peace,  the  German  Military  Staff 
used  it  as  a  camouflage  for  conquest  and 
behind  it  organized  the  largest,  the  most  com 
plete  and  the  best  disciplined  army  in  the  world, 
with  the  largest  accumulation  of  war  material 
for  the  subjugation  of  the  world. 

Day  by  day,  as  investigation  probes  proposals 
for  peace,  we  find  that  they  all  either  emanate 
from  the  German  General  Staff  or  from  those 
in  every  country  who  secretly  sympathize  with 
German  aims  and  desire  to  secure  German 
triumphs.  There  can  be  no  peace  with  safety 
which  does  not  create  a  league  of  nations, 
pledged  to  use  their  power  and  resources  for 
its  preservation  and  permanence.  They  must 
also .  be  strong  enough  and  united  enough  to 
punish  any  power  which  attempts  to  break  that 
peace  and  to  enforce  the  decisions  of  an  inter 
national  tribunal  before  which  all  must  come 
[901 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

with  their  demands,  their  complaints  and  their 
grievances. 

All  successful  revolutions  for  human  rights 
have  been  made  at  great  sacrifices  of  life  and 
treasure,  but  they  have  infinitely  repaid  their 
cost.  Certainly  there  never  has  been  such  a 
return  as  that  which  has  come  not  only  to  the 
United  States  but  the  whole  world  from  the 
sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  the  seven  years' 
war  of  the  American  Revolution.  The  Civil 
War  was  more  an  upheaval  than  a  revolution, 
but  it  eliminated  slavery,  it  removed  the 
stigma  upon  our  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  united  our  people  for  their  progressive 
development  under  free  institutions.  The 
tragedy  of  the  French  Revolution  was  succeeded 
by  the  glories  of  liberty  and  life  and  liberalism. 
The  accumulated  tragedies  of  this  great  battle 
between  democracy  and  autocracy,  between 
militarism  and  an  ordered  peace,  are  greater 
than  all  revolutions  put  together,  and  yet  the 
results  are  to  far  outweigh  the  costs.  The 
world  will  no  longer  be  an  armed  camp;  no 
longer  will  one  method  after  another  for  peace 
be  tried  and  fail. 

International  commerce  was  hailed  as  the 
solvent  of  international  difficulties  and  rivalries, 
but  its  competitions  increased  enmities;  science 
made  its  appeal,  and  the  men  of  achievement 
and  discovery  of  every  nation  met  in  con 
ventions  and  exchanged  ideas,  but  they  did  not 
[91] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

reach  the  ambitions  of  militarism ;  it  was  hoped 
that  literature  would  bring  about,  if  not 
brotherly  love,  at  least  friendship  and  good 
will;  the  universities  of  different  nations 
exchanged  professors  and  eminent  men  of 
letters  appeared  before  academic  audiences  and 
upon  popular  platforms  of  different  nationalties, 
but  they  made  little  impression;  the  members 
of  the  different  religious  bodies  of  the  world 
convened  at  several  capitals,  that  thus  Chris 
tianity  instead  of  being  localized  might  be 
internationalized  to  promote  the  principles  of 
its  Founder.  But  we  have  now,  after  all  these 
experiments,  awakened  to  the  truth  that  the 
liberty-loving  peoples  of  the  world,  who  are 
also  its  peace-loving  peoples,  must  be  strong 
enough  and  united  enough  to  keep  the  mad 
lust  for  conquest  and  power  within  safe  limits. 
Each  nation,  great  and  small,  can  develop 
under  this  league  according  to  its  racial, 
territorial  and  ancestral  conditions,  but  all 
together  can  bring  about  on  earth  the  brother 
hood  of  man. 

Our  own  country  will  feel  the  effects  in 
practical  legislation  of  the  unity  of  our  people, 
fighting,  laboring  and  sacrificing  for  one  common 
great  end. 

Senator  Chamberlain  of  Oregon,  a  very  able 

and  patriotic  statesman  and  Chairman  of  the 

great   Committee   on   Military   Affairs,    made 

statements   which   shocked   the   country   and 

[921 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

angered  the  President.  Both  the  Executive 
and  the  Senator  were  right,  because  they  spoke 
from  the  sources  of  their  own  information, 
which  should  have  been  common  to  both.  If 
we  had  in  our  system  the  compulsory  attendance 
of  members  of  the  Cabinet  upon  the  sessions  of 
Congress  this  controversy  would  never  have 
occurred.  There  would  have  been  such  a 
union  between  the  Executive  and  Legislative 
branches  of  the  government  in  the  mere  process 
of  question  and  answer  that  there  could  be  no 
concealment  or  disagreement  as  to  the  facts 
which  should  be  equally  open  to  both. 

Our  shipbuilding  is  the  salvation  of  our  armies 
abroad  and  of  our  duty  to  our  allies.  The 
ruthless  submarine  warfare  has  mercilessly  sunk 
one-third  of  the  shipping  of  the  world.  Our 
government  is  making  heroic  and  intelligent 
efforts  to  repair  that  loss  and  to  meet  the 
needs  of  our  boys  and  their  comrades  of  other 
countries.  Suddenly  the  whole  scheme  is  held 
up  because  the  carpenters  and  their  leaders 
demand  that  the  President  and  the  Congress 
and  the  army  and  the  navy  and  men  and  women 
of  all  other  trades  shall  remain  idle  and  suffer 
until  their  demands,  whether  right  or  wrong, 
are  acceded  to.  We  will  have  growing  out  of 
the  closer  relations  of  this  war  a  larger,  a  more 
liberal,  a  more  humane  understanding  between 
capital  and  labor,  from  which  each  will  derive 
their  just  share,  and  the  workman,  instead 
[931 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

of  hating  his  job,  will  have  pride  in  his  achieve 
ments. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  United  States  had  sixty 
per  cent  of  the  carrying  power  upon  the  ocean. 
At  the  commencement  of  this  war  it  had  eight. 
The  shipbuilding  necessities  of  the  times, 
liberally  responded  to  by  appropriations  and 
with  the  best  expert  talent  of  the  country 
devoted  to  the  task,  will  place  us  once  more 
upon  the  seas  and  our  flag  once  more  in  every 
port,  and  the  industrial  development  of  the 
country  will  find  its  outlet  in  its  own  ships  and 
under  its  own  flag  to  all  the  markets  of  the 
world. 

There  are  no  more  intelligent,  highly  trained 
and,  in  their  work,  patriotic  men  than  the 
railway  managers  of  the  country.  They  have 
little  financial  interest  in  the  railroads,  but 
enormous  pride  in  their  administration  and 
usefulness.  A  singular  partly  ignorant  and 
partly  demagogical  opposition  to  the  roads 
has  been  retarding  their  development,  crippling 
their  resources  and  starving  them,  so  that, 
when  unusual  and  most  necessary  demands 
were  made,  they  were  found  unequal  to  the 
emergency.  Happily,  in  the  selection  of  a 
chief  director,  a  man  of  wide  experience  and 
liberal  views  was  chosen.  Under  the  necessities 
of  the  occasion,  all  restrictive  laws  have  been 
disregarded,  the  railroads  are  acting  together 
instead  of  being  compelled  to  compete,  and  all 
[94] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    BIRTHDAY    SPEECH 

their  resources  are  made  available  for  the 
public  good.  We  will  never  go  back  to  obsolete 
and  barbarous  regulation. 

It  is  wonderful  how  great  has  been  the 
influence  of  single  utterances  of  great  leaders. 
In  the  mass  of  accumulated  wisdom  in  the 
writings  and  speeches  of  men  of  genius,  it  is 
only  a  phrase  here  and  there  which  will  survive. 
Garfield  was  an  eloquent  speaker  and  his 
addresses  filled  many  volumes.  I  remember  the 
day  Lincoln  was  assassinated.  There  was  first 
a  paralysis  of  horror  and  then  a  cry  for  ven 
geance.  A  mad  crowd  in  New  York  was 
rushing  down  Wall  Street  to  wreck  the  houses 
of  supposed  Rebel  sympathizers.  Suddenly 
there  appeared  on  a  balcony  of  the  Custom 
House  a  splendid  looking  man.  It  was  Gar- 
field,  one  of  the  finest  figures  of  his  time. 
The  crowd  hushed  and  his  voice  ringing  over 
that  immense  multitude  called  for  calmness 
and  sanity.  Its  one  phrase  sunk  into  every 
heart  and  mind — "God  reigns  and  the  Republic 
still  lives. "  This  will  be  Garfield's  monument. 
President  Cleveland  gave  to  us  "  innocuous 
desuetude."  It  became  of  universal  use  and, 
with  his  other  saying,  "  Public  office  is  a  public 
trust, "  will  survive  his  messages  to  Congress 
and  his  state  papers.  McKinley,  under  an 
unusual  and  unprecedented  pressure  of  office 
seekers,  was  the  happy  inventor  of  an  inclined 
plane  from  the  executive  office  to  the  White 
[951 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

House  grounds.  He  inspired  hope  and  loyalty 
by  saying  to  the  anxious  applicant,  "I  cannot 
give  you  what  you  desire,  but  I  hope  to  find 
something  equally  as  good."  From  Roosevelt 
we  have  the  "big  stick"  and  its  manifold  uses  in 
the  hands  of  a  strong  executive.  President 
Wilson  gave  to  us  "  psychology. "  It  was  the 
psychology  of  peoples  in  their  grasp  of  critical 
questions  and  the  psychology  of  time  for  the 
launching  of  presidential  views.  I  disagreed 
with  the  President,  thinking  he  ought  to  have 
declared  war  when  the  Lusitania  was  sunk, 
that  he  ought  to  have  responded  by  action  to 
the  outrages  on  Belgium,  that  he  ought  to 
have  met  more  promptly  the  murder  of  our 
citizens  and  the  attacks  on  our  rights,  but  I 
recognize  now  that  our  people  were  not  pre 
pared,  that  to  wake  us  up  required  two  years 
of  repeated  murders  of  our  citizens  and  in 
vasions  of  our  just  rights.  When,  after  two 
years  and  a  half,  the  President  finally  declared 
war,  on  April  6,  1917,  the  country  was  not  yet 
entirely  with  him;  but  when  this  declaration 
had  been  discussed  in  every  home,  and  six 
months  afterwards,  in  one  of  the  ablest  of 
state  papers,  the  President  appeared  before 
Congress  and  asked  for  a  declaration  of  war 
against  Austria,  the  whole  country,  with  extraor 
dinary  unanimity,  applauded  his  action.  He 
was  master  of  the  psychological  moment. 
Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  second  inaugural, 

[96] 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   BIRTHDAY   SPEECH 

made  his  mighty  declaration,  after  explaining 
his  settled  purpose  to  pursue  the  war  relent 
lessly  until  the  Union  was  preserved,  that 
it  was  to  be,  said  the  great  President,  "with 
malice  toward  none  and  charity  for  all." 
That  sentiment  carried  the  war  to  a  success 
ful  conclusion.  That  sentiment  reunited  the 
hostile  states  and  made  us  as  we  are  to-day, 
one  people,  without  sectional  lines  or  differences. 
That  sentiment  is  the  basic  principle  of  the 
entrance  of  the  United  States  alongside  the 
other  free  governments  in  this  war.  We  want 
no  territory,  no  indemnities,  no  rewards.  We 
will  fight  to  our  utmost,  "with  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all."  This  sentiment 
will  penetrate  the  opposing  lines;  it  will  be 
more  powerful  than  armies  in  disintegrating 
the  hosts  of  autocracy  and  militarism.  Those 
suffering  and  dying  millions  will  cry  as  their 
minds  open,  "What  are  we  fighting  for,  what 
gain  comes  to  us  and  our  children,  while  opposite 
us  the  Americans  are  fighting  for  liberty, 
humanity  and  Christianity,  with  'malice  toward 
none  and  charity  for  all'?"  As  this  belief 
penetrates  and  is  absorbed  it  will  do  more 
than  guns  to  destroy  the  morale  of  the  enemy, 
and  bring  with  victory  a  peace  of  liberty  and 
humanity. 


[97 


Speech  telephoned  from  New  York  City  to 
Seattle,  Wash.,  May  31,  1916.  Distance 
3,184  miles. 

At  the  request  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of 
Seattle,  Mr.  Depew  delivered  the  following  speech 
per  telephone,  and  the  service  was  so  perfect  that 
he  could  easily  hear  the  introduction  made  by  the 
Toastmaster  and  also  the  applause  with  which  his 
speech  was  received. 

Gentlemen: 

The  Metropolis  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
sends  greeting  to  the  Metropolis  of  the  Pacific 
Coast.  In  a  space  of  four  miles  before  Verdun 
is  being  fought  the  bloodiest  battle  of  all 
time.  Over  three  hundred  thousand  have 
fallen.  They  have  died  killing  each  other 
for  their  ideals.  We  to-night  by  this  marvelous 
invention  for  peace  are  brothers  in  mingled 
voices  across  three  thousand  miles  of  country, 
inhabited  by  a  people  with  one  mind,  one  love, 
one  aspiration  and  that  is  for  the  United  States. 
You  are  of  yesterday  and  we  are  of  three  cen 
turies  past,  but  our  traditions,  our  inheritance 
and  patriotism  are  the  same. 

Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant,  the  emi 
nent  French  statesman,  said  to  me  in  Paris 
that  he  had  visited  every  great  city  in  the 
world,  but  from  what  its  citizens  told  him, 
[98] 


TELEPHONE    SPEECH 

Seattle  was  far  the  largest — its  boundaries 
ran  to  the  Rockies.  Now  by  telephone  it 
makes  New  York  a  suburb. 

It  is  said  of  the  Ford  machine  that  it  is 
like  a  bath-tub  because  everybody  wants  one 
but  nobody  wants  to  be  seen  in  it.  A  few 
days  ago  Mr.  Ford  said  through  the  press, 
"  History  is  more  or  less  bunk.  It's  tradition. 
We  don't  want  tradition.  We  want  to  live  in 
the  present,  and  the  only  history  that  is  worth 
a  tinker's  damn  is  the  history  we  make  to-day. " 
We  differ  with  Mr.  Ford,  our  traditions  are  of  a 
successful  Revolution  for  independence  and 
liberty.  Our  marvelous  progress  and  develop 
ment  are  the  results  of  the  wisdom  of  the  past, 
teaching  and  inspiring  succeeding  generations. 
We  glory  and  rejoice  in  Concord,  Lexington, 
Bunker  Hill,  Saratoga  and  Yorktown.  We  rev 
erence  the  men  who  signed  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  who  framed  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

Washington  said  in  his  first  annual  message: 
" Among  the  many  interesting  objects  which 
will  engage  your  attention  that  of  providing 
for  the  common  defense  will  merit  particular 
regard.  To  be  prepared  for  war  is  one  of  the 
most  effectual  means  of  preserving  peace.  A 
free  people  ought  not  only  to  be  armed  but 
disciplined." 

That  is  a  platform  for  all  of  us  to-day.     In 
this  world  crisis  let  us  all  be  Americans. 
[99] 


Speech  at  the  Alumni  Luncheon,  Yale  Uni 
versity  Commencement,  June,  1916. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Alumni: 

I  am  not  on  the  list  of  speakers  to-day  and 
the  call  is  unexpected,  but  I  respond  because 
of  a  habit  formed  many  years  ago,  and  which  is 
as  strong  to-day  as  it  was  from  1852  to  1856, 
to  obey  without  question  any  order  of  the 
President  of  the  University. 

I  am  glad  to  participate  with  such  distin 
guished  associates.  I  was  especially  interested 
in  the  admirable  addresses  we  have  just  listened 
to  from  the  Chinese  Ambassador  and  the  dis 
tinguished  Statesman  and  Jurist  from  our 
neighbor  Canada.  I  am  particularly  impressed 
with  the  excellent  English  which  these  two 
foreigners  speak.  We,  of  the  class  of  1856, 
are  here  to  celebrate  the  sixtieth  anniversary 
of  our  graduation.  To  use  the  well-worn 
phrase  of  the  college  orator,  we  have  been  en 
gaged  during  that  long  period  in  battle  with 
the  world.  Fifteen  of  us  survive.  In  looking 
over  the  records  of  the  class  I  am  sure  if  the 
life  insurance  agent  had  been  as  active  then 
as  he  is  now,  and  could  have  foreseen  our 
future,  he  would  have  jumped  at  a  life  insurance 
proposition  of  unusual  promise.  It  is  a  favorite 
study  with  sociologists  what  professions  or 
[100] 


YALE    ALUMNI    SPEECH 

occupations  tend  most  to  prolong  life.  We 
had  distinguished  lawyers,  two  of  whom  at 
tained  the  highest  honors  possible  to  the 
American  Bar,  by  becoming  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  We  had 
eminent  educators  and  doctors  of  medicine 
and  those  who,  entering  into  business,  shared 
in  the  phenomenal  prosperity  of  this  wonderful 
period.  But  of  the  survivors,  all  but  four  are 
ministers  of  the  gospel.  Their  lives  have  been 
spent  in  active  and  continuous  work  mainly  in 
country  parishes.  They  have  witnessed  the 
marvelous  industrial  development  of  the  coun 
try,  its  accumulation  of  wealth  and  its  fabulous 
fortunes,  but  have  remained,  like  faithful 
soldiers  of  the  Cross,  at  their  post  of  chosen 
duty.  They  are  heroes  who  have  never  sur 
rendered  to  the  wiles  of  fortune,  but  have 
steadily  labored  to  keep  their  flocks  from 
yielding  to  the  unusual  temptations  of  this 
luxurious  age.  They  have  been  the  leaders 
in  their  several  communities  of  every  move 
ment  for  the  improvement  of  the  schools,  for 
social  betterment,  for  purer  living  and  for 
higher  ideals.  Their  average  earnings  have 
been  less  than  those  of  the  locomotive  engineer 
on  the  railroad,  or  of  the  skilled  mechanic,  and 
yet  they  have  retained  then*  self-respect  and 
the  unbounded  estimation  of  their  fellow 
citizens;  they  have  sent  their  sons  to  college 
and  then*  daughters  to  institutions  for  higher 
[1011 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

education;  they  are  wonderful  exemplars  of 
what  can  be  accomplished  in  this  world  and 
for  the  "world  by  clear  conscience  in  noble  and 
public-spirited  pursuit,  happiness  in  one's  calling 
and  efficiency. 

One  of  them  writes  regretting  his  inability 
to  be  here  because  he  says  that  he  has  passed 
eighty-four  and,  while  he  believes  he  is  in  good 
condition,  mentally  and  physically,  as  ever, 
his  congregation  disagrees  with  him  and  has 
retired  him  on  a  pension.  But  happily  he  is 
getting  on  very  well.  He  cannot  leave  in  June, 
however,  even  to  attend  the  sixtieth  anniversary 
of  his  class,  because  on  account  of  his  venerable 
appearance  and  impressive  manner  he  has  be 
come  a  great  favorite  at  weddings  and  funerals 
and  for  these  functions  June  is  the  open  season. 

The  distinguished  orator  from  Canada  has 
thrilled  us  with  his  description  of  the  patriotism, 
the  sacrifices  and  the  spirit  of  this  self-governing 
colony  in  this  great  war.  Our  admiration  is 
unbounded  for  what  our  neighbor  has  done. 
In  proportion  to  its  population  and  resources  no 
people  have  ever  made  greater  contributions 
and  sacrifices  for  a  great  cause.  Our  admira 
tion  is  intensified  when  we  consider  that  they 
are  far  from  the  scene  of  conflict,  that  they  are 
the  sole  judges  of  what  they  shall  do,  that 
they  probably  would  be  free  from  the  horrors  of 
war  upon  their  own  soil,  but  they  respond  to 
the  danger  of  the  great  Empire  of  which  they 
[102] 


YALE   ALUMNI    SPEECH 

are  a  part,  and  to  this  peril  to  humanity  and 
civilization  which  would  reach  them,  as  it  will 
us,  if  the  Allied  armies  and  fleets  should  lose  the 
battle.  The  great  duty  in  this  hour  for  us  is 
to  prepare.  A  nation  may  have  unlimited 
resources  in  men  and  money,  but  in  this  age  of 
organization,  where  all  the  resources  of  science, 
invention  and  discovery  are  co-ordinated  into 
a  perfect  machine  for  invasion  and  conquest, 
these  vast  unprepared  resources  are  the  tempta 
tions  and  opportunities  not  for  defense  but 
for  loot.  I  believe  that  we  cannot  keep  out 
of  this  war.  The  growing  contempt  of  the 
German  military  autocracy  for  us  will  lead  to 
repeated  aggressions,  flouting  of  our  sovereignty 
and  atrocities  on  our  citizens;  to  resent  these, 
to  assert  ourselves,  to  maintain  our  position  in 
the  world,  to  do  our  part  for  future  peace 
upon  a  basis  of  safety  and  self-respect  we  must 
be  prepared.  I  went  through  the  Civil  War 
and  the  lessons  given  by  those  who  participated 
can  never  be  forgotten.  Two  years  of  that 
struggle,  and  one-half  our  losses  in  men  and 
money  are  attributable  solely  to  the  fact  that  the 
government  was  unprepared.  Happily  our  old 
University  is  as  ever  foreseeing  this  danger  and 
the  necessity  of  meeting  it,  the  old  graduates 
re  turning  have  seen  these  young  soldiers  and  pros 
pective  heroes  who  are  forming  their  military 
organizations  and  drilling  to  be  ready  for  the 
service  of  then*  country. 

[103] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

You  younger  men  will  inquire  whether  we, 
who  have  been  sixty  years  out  of  college, 
and  all  of  whom  have  passed  our  four-score,  I 
having  passed  four-score  and  three,  have  any 
future  ambitions.  We  are  no  more  ready  to 
lay  down  than  we  were  when  we  left  Yale. 
We  are  no  longer  seeking  public  office,  or  com 
peting  for  the  prizes  of  the  professions  or 
industries.  My  admiration  has  always  been 
in  increasing  the  years  for  the  elevated  and 
serene  position  of  the  oldest  graduate.  He 
receives  a  reverence  and  devotion  accorded  to 
none  others.  Occasionally  his  memory  may 
fail  him  a  bit.  I  remember  a  reception  given 
in  New  York  to  the  then  holder  of  that  title, 
old  Wickham.  He  was  ninety-six  past.  A 
distinguished  Statesman  who  was  present  said 
to  him,  "Mr.  Wickham,  my  mother  was  a 
bridesmaid  when  you  were  married."  "What 
was  her  name?"  asked  the  old  gentleman. 
The  Statesman  gave  it.  "Oh,  yes,"  said 
Wickham,  "I  remember  her  very  well,  that  was 
when  I  married  my  second  wife.  I  don't 
recall  her  name  but  she  was  a  very  fine  woman. " 
If  it  shall  be  my  lot  to  reach  this  enviable  place, 
I  trust  it  will  be  with  perfect  memory,  sound 
body  and  a  clear  head,  to  be  an  example  for 
you  all  of  what  Yale  training  and  the  Yale 
spirit  will  do  for  a  man. 


104 


Address  during  the  Centennial  Celebration  of 
the  Granting  of  the  first  Charter  to  the  Vil 
lage  of  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  2,  3  and  4, 
1916. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  and  I  think  I  may  add, 
My  Fellow  Townsmen: 

To  be  in  Peekskill  has  been  a  pleasure  for 
me  all  my  life.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  par 
ticipate  in  the  ceremony  which  celebrates  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  formation  of  our 
village  government.  For  eighty- two  years  of 
that  hundred  I  have  been  either  a  resident  or 
a  frequent  visitor,  and  always  deeply  interested 
in  the  affairs,  the  welfare  and  the  prosperity  of 
the  town.  History  moves  in  cycles,  each  cen 
tury  has  its  characteristic  and  its  contribution 
to  the  advancement  of  the  world.  We  have 
had  many  of  them  within  the  last  thirty  years. 
I  had  the  honor  to  be  the  orator  at  the  four 
hundredth  celebration  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus,  and  shared  it  with  that 
distinguished  citizen,  veteran  journalist  and 
original  thinker,  Colonel  Watterson,  of  Ken 
tucky.  I  was  also  the  orator  on  the  occasion  of 
the  centenary  of  the  inauguration  of  our  first 
President,  and  the  centenary  of  the  formation 
of  the  Legislature  in  our  State. 

There  is  no  period  in  recorded  times  during 
which  so  much  was  accomplished  for  liberty 

[  1051 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  enfranchisement,  humanity,  invention,  dis 
covery  and  the  progress  and  development  of  the 
world.  This  century,  which  covers  the  life  of 
our  village,  began  with  the  close  of  the  War  of 
1812,  and  ends  when  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity,  and  all  the  precious  victories  of  peace 
of  this  century  are  at  stake  upon  the  bloodiest 
battlefields,  and  in  the  most  frightful  and 
destructive  war  of  all  time. 

1916  marked  a  cleavage  in  the  industrial 
policy  of  our  country  between  the  past  and  the 
future.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  1812 
we  had  been  almost  purely  an  agricultural 
people.  Our  manufactures  were  few  and  very 
weak.  The  one  industry  in  which  we  excelled 
was  the  carrying  trade  upon  the  ocean.  Our 
ships  were  the  best  in  the  merchant  marines  of 
the  world,  and  our  sailors  the  most  skillful  and 
enterprising.  The  War  of  1812  was  entered 
upon  with  hilarity  and  hailed  with  the  wildest 
enthusiasm.  Peace,  three  years  afterwards, 
was  hailed  with  equal  hilarity  and  enthusiasm. 
Blockade  and  embargo,  during  that  period, 
closed  our  ports.  There  was  the  greatest  dis 
tress  in  our  seaport  cities  and  along  our  coast; 
our  ships  lay  idle  at  the  wharfs,  and  the  large 
number  of  men  engaged  in  this  industry  were 
out  of  employment,  as  were  the  merchants  and 
those  who  were  dependent  upon  them  and  their 
enterprises.  But  a  condition  was  produced, 
which  is  nearly  duplicated  at  the  present  time. 
[106] 


PEEKSKILL  CENTENNIAL  ADDRESS 

We  were  dependent  upon  Europe  for  our  cotton, 
woolen  and  silk  goods,  and  for  nearly  all  the 
manufactures  in  iron.  Necessity  led  to  the 
utilization  of  the  water  power  and  the  building 
of  numerous  factories  for  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  and  woolen  goods  and  some  iron.  When 
the  war  closed,  what  happened  may  occur 
again  after  a  hundred  years.  Napoleon  had 
been  defeated  at  Waterloo  and  was  a  prisoner 
at  St.  Helena.  The  vast  armies  which  had 
crushed  him  were  disbanded  and  the  troops 
left  to  shift  for  themselves  and  earn  their 
own  living.  They  rushed  to  the  factories  for 
employment.  The  surplus  of  labor  led  to 
lower  wages  and  cheaper  cost  of  production. 
To  help  their  own  industries,  the  Continental 
Nations  raised  barriers  against  English  impor 
tations.  The  result  was  that  this  vast  and 
constantly  increasing  product  of  the  English 
factories  was  dumped  into  our  ports.  The 
ordinary  agencies  of  purchase  and  distribution 
were  unequal  to  the  task  of  marketing,  so 
auctions  were  held  in  every  port  with  the  result 
of  flooding  the  country  and  closing  American 
mills.  Among  the  articles  of  which  vast 
quantities  were  sold  and  distributed  were 
Yorkshire  cloth,  Scotch  muslins,  blankets, 
flushings,  plushes,  taffetas,  silks,  jackette  mus 
lins,  bombasettes,  kerseys,  soap,  nails,  salt, 
bed  covers,  tacks,  pencil  cases,  matches,  tooth 
brushes,  pins,  grind  stones,  cast  iron  pots,  tea 
[1071 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

kettles,  iron  bolts,  axes,  hose,  spades,  plough 
shafts,  lightning  rods,  zinc,  stoves,  wool|and 
iron  and  pipes.  As  most  of  these  things  were 
not  produced  here  the  country  had  been  with 
out  them  during  the  war.  Our  dependence 
upon  Europe  for  most  of  the  necessities  of 
life  made  an  impression  upon  the  people  which 
they  never  had  before.  An  agitation  was 
started  without  regard  to  party,  at  first,  to 
protect  the  cotton  and  wool  manufacture,  and 
next  to  relieve  us  by  home  production  of  this 
dependence  upon  Europe,  which  might  at  any 
time  be  shut  off  by  war.  It  may  be  safely 
asserted  that  the  policies,  which  led  in  time 
to  our  manufacturing  at  home  every  necessity, 
and  to  our  independence  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
was  due  to  this  rude  awakening  of  three  years 
of  increasing  privation  and  the  grasp  of  the 
necessities  of  the  situation  which  became  so 
universal  in  1816. 

Another  great  era  opened  in  our  national 
development  because  of  the  experiences  of  the 
war.  While  agriculture  was  fairly  prosperous, 
the  distress,  unemployment  and  difficulties  of 
earning  a  living  was  very  great  in  other  depart 
ments.  Soup  houses  first  appeared  during  this 
period.  The  more  energetic,  both  men  and 
women,  among  the  people  who  could  find  no 
employment  moved  West,  where  lands  were 
free.  This  emigration  assumed  such  a  large 
proportion  as  to  frighten  the  old  States.  In 

[108] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

seeking  methods  to  protect  themselves  there 
arose  a  wonderful  and  widespread  movement 
for  internal  improvements.  Canals  were  pro 
jected  and  highways  and  public  roads  laid  out 
and  opened.  The  effort  of  the  States  was  to 
settle  these  flying  people,  who  were  among  the 
best  of  their  citizens,  within  their  own  borders 
where  there  was  plenty  of  land  but  inaccessible, 
instead  of  having  them  go  along  the  Great 
Lakes  and  to  the  West  and  Northwest.  In 
our  own  State,  that  far-sighted  Statesman 
DeWitt  Clinton  conceived  the  idea  of  the 
Erie  and  Champlain  Canals  and  uniting  the 
Great  Lakes  with  the  Hudson.  In  1816,  he 
had  overcome  all  political  opposition  and  the 
great  work  was  fairly  inaugurated.  We  must 
remember  that  water  was  the  only  means  of 
transportation  for  considerable  distances  a 
hundred  years  ago.  The  Erie  Canal  gave  to 
New  York  its  cities  of  Utica,  Syracuse,  Roches 
ter  and  Buffalo;  it  settled  the  Valleys  of  the 
Mohawk  and  the  Genesee;  it  was  largely  con 
tributory  to  the  building  of  all  the  States 
bordering  upon  the  Great  Lakes;  it  made  New 
York  the  Empire  State  and  its  city  the  me 
tropolis  of  the  Western  World. 

In  1816  the  seas  were  free  as  a  result  of  the 
war.  Our  shipping  in  the  ports,  for  the 
preservation  of  the  mast  and  rigging  during 
the  war  had  tar  barrels  on  top  of  the  spars 
which  were  called  after  President  Madison, 

\  1091 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  in  derision  of  his  war,  "  Madison's  Night 
caps.  "  With  wild  jubilation  "  Madison's  Night 
caps"  were  universally  removed,  the  ships 
refitted  and  the  movement  became  so  great 
that  our  exports  rose  in  a  short  time  from  five 
millions  to  forty-five  millions  a  year.  The 
impetus  thus  given  to  American  shipping  gave 
us  in  time  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  carrying  trade 
of  the  ocean.  Our  clipper  ships  outdistanced 
all  others  in  speed  and  the  American  flag  was 
on  every  ocean  and  in  the  majority  in  all  the 
ports  of  the  world.  It  is  our  misfortune  and 
our  disgrace  that  the  American  merchant 
marine  has  fallen  to  eight  per  cent.;  that  the 
American  flag  is  unknown  in  foreign  ports 
practically,  and  the  continuing  and  very  recent 
legislation,  hostile  to  American  shipping,  has 
handed  the  Pacific  Ocean  over  to  the  Japanese 
and  Chinese,  and  when  normal  conditions  are 
restored  and  the  world  is  at  peace  will  prevent 
any  resurrection  of  the  American  merchant 
marine. 

It  was  while  these  startling  changes  and 
revolutions,  along  the  seacoast  and  in  the 
interior,  were  making  such  brave  beginnings 
that  the  citizens  of  Peekskill  had  the  instinct 
and  ambition  for  organization.  About  1683  a 
masterful  man,  a  merchant  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  Stephanus  Van  Cortlandt,  bought  from 
different  Indian  chiefs  and  tribes  all  the 
land  between  Croton  River  and  Garrison,  and 

[1101 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS 

eastward  to  the  Connecticut  line,  with  the 
exception  of  1,800  acres  in  what  is  now  Peeks- 
kill  and  vicinity,  and  300  acres  where  the  State 
camp  is  located.  Van  Cortlandt's  grant 
amounted  to  86,203  acres.  The  other  land 
was  bought  by  a  combination,  Richard  Abram- 
sen,  Jacob  Abramsen,  Tennis  De  Kay,  Seba 
Jacob  and  John  Harxse.  It  was  customary 
among  the  early  Dutch  settlers  to  change  their 
names  by  taking  the  names  of  the  places  in 
Holland  with  which  their  families  were  con 
nected.  So  the  Abramsens  became  Lents  and 
John  Harxse  became  Kronkhyte.  The  major 
part  of  this  became  the  property  of  Hercules 
Lent,  who  was  the  son  of  Richard  Abramsen, 
Abramsen  having  changed  his  name  to  Lent 
from  the  town  in  Holland  from  which  he  came. 
Kronkhyte  married  Lent's  daughter  and  one 
of  his  heirs.  In  the  division  of  the  Ryck 
Patent,  the  Kronkhyte  property  extended  from 
the  McGregory's  brook  which  runs  down 
Center  street  and  ran  southward  beyond  the 
present  limits  of  the  village  and  included  what 
is  now  known  as  Depew  Park.  Kronkhyte 
was  my  ancestor  and  through  him  I  am  very 
proud  of  being  among  the  first  settlers  of 
Peekskill.  The  Indians  of  this  neighborhood 
were  of  the  Mohegan  Tribe;  they  were  divided 
into  smaller  tribes  but  confederated  together 
with  a  federal  relationship  with  the  six  nations 
on  the  Mohawk.  Chief  Sachus  was  the  Chief 
[111] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

governing  all  the  land  from  Verplanck's  Point 
to  Anthony's  Nose.  His  chief  village  and 
residence  were  here  and  named  Sachus.  His 
neighbor  and  relative  to  the  south  was  Chief 
Knoton  who  governed  the  territory  covering 
the  mouth  of  the  Croton  and  joining  Chief 
Sachus'  territory  at  Verplanck's  Point.  The 
corruption  of  Knoton  into  Croton  by  the 
English  gives  us  the  present  name  of  the  water 
supply  of  New  York.  The  1,800  acres  of  land 
pur  chased  by  these  men,  whom  I  have  mentioned, 
was  known  as  Ryck's  Patent,  and  the  title  was 
confirmed  subsequently  after  the  English  con 
quered  New  York  by  Governor  Dongan. 

There  was  not  much  progress  made  in  the 
development  of  our  village  prior  to  1816.  The 
people  were  farmers  with  some  home  indus 
tries  carried  on  in  their  own  houses  for  the 
convenience  of  the  neighborhood.  They  early, 
however,  appreciated  the  value  of  being  the 
center  of  the  transportation  of  the  country 
round  about.  They  extended  what  is  now  the 
Crompond  Road  to  the  Connecticut  line  and 
up  to  Danbury;  they  ran  what  afterwards 
became  known  on  the  north  as  Peekskill  Turn 
pike  far  out  into  the  country,  the  Albany 
postroad,  which  was  the  main  highway  and 
had  been  before  the  Revolution  between  New 
York  and  Albany,  ran  through  the  center  of 
the  village  and  so  on  through  the  Highlands. 
Our  enterprising  ancestors  put  sloops  upon  the 
[112] 


PEEKSKILL   CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

river  until  at  one  time  there  was  a  fleet  of 
about  a  dozen.  This  made  Peekskill  the  market 
town  of  a  territory  which  included  all  the  settle 
ments  far  into  Connecticut.  I  can  remember 
as  a  boy  when  these  great  arks,  sometimes 
with  two  horses  and  sometimes  with  four 
attached,  would  gather  up  the  produce  of  the 
farmers  along  the  highways;  bring  it  down  to 
the  sloops;  purchase  and  carry  back  either 
purchases  from  New  York,  or  from  the  village 
stores,  the  groceries,  cloths  and  farm  imple 
ments  needed  by  the  farmers.  The  early 
captains,  who  ran  these  sloops,  were  important 
personages  in  the  village.  They  brought  back 
from  their  trips  to  New  York  all  the  news  of 
the  day.  They  were  the  most  prosperous  of 
the  people.  The  farmers  nearer  by  sent  their 
own  produce  to  New  York  by  these  sloops; 
the  sloop  captains  not  only  carried  the  produce 
and  cattle,  but  marketed  them  in  New  York,  so 
that  they  were  both  navigators  and  commis 
sion  merchants.  One  of  the  captains,  my 
father  told  me,  said  that  a  young  farmer 
came  to  his  sloop  with  one  calf  and  also 
insisted  upon  being  a  passenger  to  sell  that 
calf  himself  in  New  York.  The  one  calf  grew 
to  droves  of  cattle  and  then  to  larger  herds, 
too  numerous  for  the  sloops,  which  were 
driven  to  Bull's  Head  in  New  York  and 
there  sold.  This  young  man  became  the 
Cattle  King  and  then  he  became  the  largest 
[113] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

speculator  in  Wall  Street;  at  one  time  he 
practically  owned  and  dominated  the  Erie 
Railroad;  his  accumulations  at  the  height  of 
his  fortune  amounted  to  twenty  millions  of 
dollars;  he  died  poor;  he  was  Daniel  Drew. 
He  founded  academies  and  seminaries,  but 
instead  of  endowing  them  with  the  money 
which  he  could  well  have  done,  he  gave  his 
notes  and  credit  for  their  maintenance.  I 
knew  him  very  well  and  was  told  by  one  of 
his  intimates  that  the  reason  for  his  building 
these  educational  and  theological  institutions 
and  then  leaving  them  in  this  peril  was  an  idea 
that  if  their  existence  depended  upon  his 
solvency  and  wealth  God  would  protect  both. 
The  result  showed  that  the  Lord  disapproved 
of  the  transaction. 

In  1816  navigation  of  the  river  by  steam  had 
become  a  success,  and  newer  and  larger  boats 
were  being  put  on.  The  first  boat,  the  Clermont, 
made  four  miles  an  hour;  the  speed  was  in 
creased  with  the  years  until  the  Mary  Powell 
made  twenty  miles  an  hour.  Robert  Fulton, 
the  inventor  of  steam  as  applied  to  naviga 
tion,  had,  with  the  financial  assistance  of 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  built  the  first  steam 
boat.  He  named  her  the  Clermont  after  Mr. 
Livingston's  home  on  the  Hudson.  When  she 
started  from  New  York  for  Albany  in  1808  an 
immense  crowd  gathered  on  the  wharf.  They 
were  all  sceptics.  Fulton  and  Livingston  had 
[114] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

with  them  on  the  boat  about  twenty  friends. 
At  first  the  engines  did  not  work  well,  and 
then  the  boat  hesitated,  whereupon  the  crowd 
began  to  shout,  "A  fool  and  his  money  is  soon 
parted,  Bobby  try  something  else, — look  out 
you'll  blow  up."  Suddenly,  with  an  immense 
volume  of  smoke  from  the  wood  fires  bursting 
out  of  the  smokestack,  the  paddles  began  to 
turn  and  the  boat  shot  out  into  the  river  with 
Robert  Fulton  at  the  helm  and  started  on  her 
trial  trip  for  Albany.  Those  on  the  boat  threw 
their  hats  in  the  air  and  cheered  until  they  were 
hoarse.  The  thousand  sceptics  on  the  shore 
were  instantly  converted — the  day  of  pentecost 
had  come  for  navigation  by  steam.  In  time 
the  steamboat  competed  with,  and  then 
destroyed,  the  sloops.  It  was  another  in 
stance  of  which  the  world  is  full  where  an 
invention  wipes  out  existing  capital  and 
investment,  and  with  it  the  employment  of 
thousands. 

That  remarkable  genius,  Commodore  Vander- 
bilt,  soon  demonstrated  that  no  individual,  firm 
or  corporation  could  successfully  compete  with 
him.  He  put  a  boat  on  to  Peekskill  and  com 
pelled  the  existing  line  to  surrender.  He  was 
rapidly  monopolizing  the  traffic  of  the  Hudson 
when  the  discovery  of  California  drew  his 
attention  to  the  enormous  profits  in  the  steam 
ship  business  between  New  York  and  California. 
In  a  short  time  he  had  compelled  all  the  old 
[1151 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

lines  to  surrender  and  was  sole  master  of  the 
traffic  situation. 

r%When  the  larger  and  faster  steamboats  had 
been  completed,  and  were  racing  with  each 
other,  then-  performances  were  the  romances 
of  the  river.  Their  names  were  household 
words.  The  Armenia,  The  Alida,  The  Francis 
Sciddy,  The  Hendrick  Hudson,  and  The 
Chauncey  Vibbard,  all  had  then-  enthusiastic 
partisans.  When  I  was  a  boy  the  entire 
population  would  gather  on  the  river  bank  to 
see  the  boats  enter  Peekskill  bay  and  disappear 
through  the  Highlands.  It  was  usually  late 
in  the  afternoon.  They  ran  on  an  accurate 
schedule.  They  were  so  near  alike  in  speed 
that  in  1849  the  Hendrick  Hudson  and  The 
Alida  raced  from  New  York  to  Albany,  one 
hundred  and  forty  miles,  there  was  only  fifteen 
minutes  difference  in  their  arrival  The 
excitement  and  the  wagering  on  their  favorite 
boat  became  so  great  among  our  people  that, 
if  the  Legislature  had  not  passed  an  act  pro 
hibiting  racing  on  the  river,  our  people  might 
have  become  a  population  of  gamblers. 

The  steamboat  never  took  the  place  of  the 
sloops  in  drawing  traffic  to  the  village,  but  a 
worse  blow  to  that  traffic  than  the  steamboat 
was  the  completion  of  the  Harlem  Railroad. 
It  cut  off  entirely  the  Connecticut  contribu 
tion  and  also  took  to  itself  a  large  section  on  the 
Westchester  and  Putnam  side.  It  ran  on  an 
[1161 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

average  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  village  and 
furnished  facilities  for  reaching  New  York, 
with  which  the  river  could  not  compete. 

That  remarkable  automobile  manufacturer 
and  pacifist,  Mr.  Ford,  was  quoted  in  an 
interview  the  other  day  as  saying  "  History  is 
more  or  less  bunk,  it  is  tradition.  We  don't 
want  tradition — we  want  to  live  in  the  present, 
and  the  only  history  that  is  worth  a  tinker's 
damn  is  the  history  we  live  to-day."  I  differ 
entirely  from  Mr.  Ford.  It  is  the  history  of 
the  past  which  makes  possible  the  history 
we  make  to-day.  The  American  Revolution 
made  us  a  free  people,  and  created  our  Republic. 
The  Civil  War  cemented  the  union  of  the 
States  and  made  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  true  in  spirit  as  well  as  letter  by  en 
franchising  the  slave.  We  here  to-day  can 
rejoice  in  traditions  as  glorious  and  inspiring 
as  belong  to  any  other  part  of  our  country. 
This  was  the  key  to  the  Highlands,  and  a  recent 
writer  has  said  that  Peekskill  was  the  heart 
of  the  Revolution.  The  plan  of  campaign 
agreed  upon  by  the  British  Military  Staff  was 
to  divide  the  country  by  the  Hudson  River. 
It  was  to  seize  and  fortify  the  passes  of  the 
Highlands  and  prevent  communication  between 
New  England,  New  York  and  the  South.  It 
was  to  accomplish  this  purpose  that  when  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  had  failed  to  break  through  and 
pass  West  Point  on  the  south  that  Burgoyne 
[1171 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

came  down  with  his  army  from  the  north 
and  met  his  fate  at  Saratoga  in  one  of  the  few 
decisive  battles  of  the  world.  The  Americans 
on  their  side  built  forts  Clinton  and  Mont 
gomery  opposite  Anthony's  Nose,  ran  an  iron 
chain  across  the  river  from  Anthony's  Nose 
to  Fort  Montgomery  and  made  West  Point 
the  strongest  of  their  fortifications  with  always 
the  strongest  resident  garrison  commanded  by 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  reliable  of  the 
Revolutionary  generals.  After  the  battle  of 
Long  Island  and  the  retreat  of  the  American 
army  to  White  Plains,  and  after  the  battle  of 
White  Plains,  and  the  retreat  of  the  American 
army  further  north  to  the  hills  near  the  village, 
Westchester  County,  as  far  north  as  Dobbs 
Ferry,  was  in  possession  of  the  British  and  this 
included  New  York  and  Long  Island  until  the 
close  of  the  war.  While  from  Dobbs  Ferry 
north  to  the  town  of  Cortlandt  line  was  the 
neutral  ground  raided  by  both  parties,  and 
only  temporarily  held  by  either.  Peekskill, 
with  its  impregnable  passes  north  to  West 
Point,  became  and  continued  until  the  end  of 
the  war  the  camping  ground  of  large  sections 
of  the  American  army,  and  the  headquarters  of 
Washington,  Putnam,  McDougal,  Lafayette 
and  others.  Through  our  streets  passed 
Rochambeau  and  the  French  army  on  their 
way  south  to  the  final  battle  which  closed  the 
war  at  Yorktown,  and  again  on  their  way 

[118] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS 

north  for  Newport,  and  re-embarkation  for 
home.  On  the  way  home  the  French  army 
encamped  for  a  while  on  the  Crompont  Road 
just  above  the  village.  As  Rochambeau,  sur 
rounded  by  his  brilliant  staff,  was  about  to 
start,  he  was  interrupted  by  a  Peekskill  con 
stable  informing  him,  while  waving  a  writ  of 
attachment,  that  he  could  not  leave  without 
paying  S3, 000  in  gold  to  a  neighboring  farmer 
because  the  farmer's  orchard  had  been  cut 
down  for  firewood.  With  Continental  cur 
rency,  the  only  currency  we  had,  at  a  discount 
where  $10  in  gold  would  buy  $100  in  Con 
tinental  money,  this  made  the  farmer's  orchard 
worth  $30,000.  Probably  for  cash  the  whole 
township  might  have  been  bought  for  that 
amount.  Rochambeau  paid  that  deference 
of  the  military  to  the  civil  authority  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  our  American  institu 
tion,  by  leaving  $1,000  in  gold  and  the  case  to 
be  settled  by  arbitration  among  the  farmer's 
neighbors.  The  neighbors  awarded  him  $400. 
King's  Ferry  of  row  boats  and  batteaus  ran 
from  Verplanck's  Point  to  Stony  Point  and  was 
the  only  communication  across  the  river  for 
the  Americans,  so  there  was  always  a  fort  and 
garrison  at  Verplanck's  Point.  The  Marquis 
de  Castellaux,  who  was  in  Rochambeau' s  army, 
and  wrote  a  gossipy  account  of  his  American 
experiences,  says  that  coming  from  the  south 
he  crossed  over  to  Verplanck's  Point  and  was  at 

[1191 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

once  entertained  by  General  Washington.  He 
says  that  the  tents  of  the  American  army,  for 
shade  purposes,  were  artistically  festooned  with 
branches  of  trees  making  it  the  most  picturesque 
encampment  he  had  ever  seen.  When  he  in 
formed  General  Washington  of  his  sufferings 
from  fever  and  ague  the  General  advised  him 
to  take  two  glasses  of  madeira  before  dinner 
and  a  glass  of  claret  after  dinner,  and  then  a 
long  ride  on  horse-back.  The  General  furnished 
him  with  a  horse  and  all  the  General's  horses 
had  been  broken  by  himself.  The  Marquis 
says  it  was  the  finest  horse,  the  best  fitted  and 
the  surest-footed  he  ever  rode.  With  the 
General  they  took  ditches  and  fences  as  if 
sailing  over  the  prairies  and  the  next  morning 
his  fever  and  ague  were  gone.  According  to 
our  modern  standards  and  beliefs  what  cured 
him  was  the  horse. 

Benedict  Arnold  was  always  a  favorite 
officer  with  General  Washington.  On  account 
of  being  invalided  because  wounded  in  his  leg  at 
Saratoga,  Washington  gave  him  command  at 
Philadelphia.  Arnold  lived  there  a  life  of 
wild  extravagance  and  brilliant  entertainment. 
Peggy  Shippen  was  the  belle  of  the  city.  Like 
most  of  the  aristocracy  she  and  her  family 
were  Tory  sympathizers.  She  captured  Major 
Andre*  when  he  was  the  master  of  all  social 
gaieties  and  festivities  while  the  British  held 
the  city.  Arnold,  about  forty  years  old,  and  a 
[120] 


PEEKSKILL  CENTENNIAL  ADDRESS 

widower,  fell  madly  in  love  with  Peggy  Shippen. 
His  letter,  making  to  her  the  proposal  of 
marriage,  proves  him  to  have  been  a  man  of 
culture  and  refinement,  and  to  have  possessed 
many  literary  graces.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
fervid,  beautifully  phrased  and  ardent  appeals 
to  the  heart  of  a  maiden  in  the  literature  of 
love.  Peggy  surrendered.  In  celebrating  the 
event  the  married  couple  in  town  house  and 
country  place  lived  far  beyond  the  General' s 
means — they  fell  deeply  in  debt  and  were  ever 
surrounded  by  the  flattery  of  his  fashionable 
guests  and  their  suggestions  of  the  hopeless 
ness  of  the  cause,  and  the  brilliant  future  that 
so  fine  a  soldier  would  have  if  he  deserted  the 
Americans  and  joined  the  British  army.  Arnold 
met  General  Washington  at  Verplanck's  Point, 
when  Washington  was  on  his  way  to  meet  the 
French.  Washington  received  him  with  great 
cordiality  and  offered  him  the  command  of  the 
left  wing  of  his  army,  a  post  of  honor.  Arnold 
said  that  on  account  of  his  leg  not  yet  healed, 
he  could  not  take  the  field  and  asked  for  the 
command  of  West  Point.  Arnold  was  smart 
ing  under  a  decision  of  a  court-martial  before 
which  he  had  recently  been  tried  on  account 
of  his  indiscretions  and  extravagances  in  Phila 
delphia.  Arnold  expected  an  acquittal  but  the 
court  decided  upon  a  reprimand,  though  old  Gen 
eral  Van  Cortlandt,  who  presided,  and  who 
said  afterwards,  "If  the  other  members  of  the 
[1211 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

court  had  known  Arnold  as  well  as  I,  they  would 
have  voted  for  his  dismissal  from  the  army." 
Washington,  on  account  of  his  confidence  in 
Arnold  and  his  admiration  for  him,  administered 
the  reprimand  in  such  a  way  that  a  generous 
nature  would  have  been  eternally  grateful. 
When  Washington  returned  from  meeting  with 
the  French  Generals  he  stopped  at  the  Birdsall 
House  in  Peekskill,  and  here  one  word  for  the 
present  generation.  In  Revolutionary  times 
hotels  were  called  inns.  They  were  the  stopping 
places,  and  in  a  way  the  residences  for  the  time 
being,  of  statesmen,  soldiers,  diplomats  and 
merchants.  The  hotel-keeper  was  an  important 
personage  and  a  leader  in  every  community. 
All  political  caucuses,  all  conferences  among 
statesmen  and  politicians  were  held  at  these 
inns.  Immediately  opposite  the  Eagle  on 
Main  Street  was  the  Mandeville  House.  Down 
Main  Street,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and 
jutting  half  way  across  the  highway  was  the 
Birdsall  House.  Mandeville  and  Birdsall  were 
brothers-in-law.  The  Birdsall  House  had  the 
greatest  social  reputation.  Washington  and 
his  officers  always  stopped  there.  In  fact,  I 
think  that  Washington  passed  more  time  at  the 
Birdsall  House  than  at  any  other  of  the  many 
inns  where  he  was  entertained.  At  the  Birdsall 
House  were  held  Councils  of  War,  at  which 
plans  were  perfected  affecting  not  only  the 
defences  of  the  Highlands  and  West  Point, 

[122] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

but  campaigns  against  New  York  and  in  the 
South.  Arnold  met  Washington  at  the  Bird- 
sail  House,  renewed  his  request  for  West  Point 
and  received  the  commission,  departing  the 
next  day  to  his  command. 

I  will  not  recite  the  whole  story  of  the 
treason.  It  was  a  Peekskill  boy,  John  Pauld- 
ing,  who  had  just  escaped  from  the  military 
prison  in  New  York,  who  with  two  other 
West  Chester  men,  Williams  and  Van  Wart, 
effected  the  capture  of  Andre  near  Dobbs 
Ferry.  There  are  few  incidents  connected 
with  Arnold's  treason  and  its  failure  which 
seem  to  indicate  a  special  Providence  watching 
over  the  liberties  of  America  and  frustrating 
the  ingenuity,  skill  and  machinations  of  its 
enemies. 

First  had  Major  Andre  obeyed  the  instruc 
tions  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  he  would  not  have 
come  within  the  American  lines.  Two  farmers 
hid  in  the  bushes  and  fired  at  a  boat  from  the 
Vulture,  which  was  coming  toward  shore,  and 
killed  one  of  the  sailors,  compelling  the  boat  to 
row  back  to  the  sloop  of  war  Vulture,  which 
had  brought  Andre  up  to  the  meeting  with 
Arnold,  and  was  to  take  him  back.  These  shots 
called  the  attention  of  Colonel  Livingston,  who 
commanded  at  Verplanck's  Point,  to  the  pos 
sibility  of  driving  the  Vulture  down  stream  or 
crippling  her,  by  placing  a  gun  on  Teller's 
Point.  The  gun  was  so  skillfully  placed  and 
[1231 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

handled  by  the  gunners  that  the  Vulture  was 
compelled  to  raise  anchor  and  drop  so  far 
down  the  river  that  it  was  impossible  for  Andre, 
who  was  conferring  with  Arnold,  and  com 
pleting  the  bargain  for  the  betrayal  of  West 
Point  at  Smith's  House,  near  Haverstraw,  to 
regain  the  warship.  He  had  to  make  his  way 
to  New  York  through  the  American  lines  with 
the  plans  and  papers  hidden  in  his  boots.  Had 
Smith  accompanied  him,  with  Arnold's  pass, 
until  within  the  British  lines  Andre  would 
have  undoubtedly  escaped.  Paulding  had  suc 
ceeded  in  escaping  as  a  prisoner  from  New 
York  in  a  British  uniform  loaned  him  by  a 
friend.  It  was  this  uniform  which  deceived 
Andre"  in  revealing  himself  to  what  he  supposed 
was  a  friendly  patrol.  Had  the  blundering 
Major  Jameson,  who  sent  the  note  to  Arnold, 
which  Arnold  received  while  at  breakfast, 
announcing  the  capture  of  Andre",  included  the 
papers,  description  of  West  Point,  disposition 
to  be  made  by  Arnold  of  the  troops  and  all 
things  necessary  for  its  easy  capture,  Arnold 
could  have  destroyed  this  incriminating  evi 
dence,  but  happily  Major  Jameson  sent  the 
papers  by  a  subsequent  messenger  and,  after 
Arnold  had  fled,  they  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Washington's  Aide,  Alexander  Hamilton.  But, 
says  the  critic,  if  these  were  special  Providences  to 
save  the  American  cause  from  this  betrayal  why 
was  Arnold  permitted  to  escape?  It  is  not  for  me 
[124] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

to  interpret  the  ways  of  Providence,  but  it  is  a 
solution  both  plausible  and  probable  that 
Arnold's  punishment  was  to  be  worse  than 
death.  He  lived  for  twenty-one  years  after 
his  treason  execrated  by  his  countrymen  and 
treated  with  irritating  and  ill-concealed  con 
tempt  by  the  British.  He  lost  the  $30,000, 
which  were  given  him  as  the  price  of  his  treach 
ery,  and  suffered  not  only  social  ostracism  but 
bankruptcy  and  want.  He  appears  last  in  the 
dramatic  interview  with  Talleyrand.  Talley 
rand,  about  to  take  the  ship  for  New  York, 
was  told  that  an  American  was  a  guest  in  the 
hotel.  Talleyrand  sent  his  card  and  called. 
He  of  course  knew  that  Talleyrand,  then  a 
refugee,  was  one  of  the  most  famous  states 
men  in  Europe.  Arnold  said,  "Sir,  I  am  the 
only  American  who  cannot  give  you  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  a  friend  in  America.  I  am 
Benedict  Arnold/7  Benedict  Arnold  was  a 
genius  as  a  soldier,  a  man  of  extraordinary 
ability.  Exaggerated  vanity  easily  offended  and 
the  fearful  temptations  of  debt  and  bank 
ruptcy  to  a  man  who  had  acquired  incurable 
habits  of  extravagance  and  luxury,  who  wished 
to  surround  a  wife,  whom  he  adored,  with  the 
things  which  only  wealth  can  procure,  and  who 
had  a  morality  so  low  that  it  sapped  the  founda 
tions  of  patriotism,  made  Benedict  Arnold  the 
only  traitor  in  American  history. 

At  the  Birdsall  House  Washington  commis- 

[125] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

sioned  as  members  of  his  staff  two  of  the  most 
remarkable  young  men  of  that  period,  Alexander 
Hamilton  and  Aaron  Burr.  Aaron  Burr  pre 
sents  a  study  in  heredity.  His  father  was  the 
most  noted  preacher  and  educator  in  the  coun 
try  and  though  the  second  president,  the  real 
founder  of  Princeton  University.  His  mother 
was  the  daughter  of  the  Reverend  Jonathan 
Edwards,  the  most  eminent  divine  preacher  and 
theologian  of  his  century.  She  possessed  the 
intellectual  force  and  vigor  of  her  distinguished 
father.  His  father  and  mother  dying,  Aaron 
Burr  was  brought  up  in  the  family  of  his  uncle, 
also  a  distinguished  divine.  Early  in  life  he 
repudiated  all  his  early  teachings  and  became 
an  atheist.  He  became  a  great  lawyer  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  .States,  but  his 
moral  character  was  bad,  he  formed  a  con 
spiracy  to  create  an  empire  of  the  Western 
States  and  of  Mexico,  was  tried  for  treason  and 
narrowly  escaped  conviction.  He  killed  Hamil 
ton  in  a  duel  which  he  had  forced  and  was 
execrated  and  shunned  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  an  original  con 
structive  genius.  Talleyrand  declared  him  to 
have  the  greatest  mind  he  had  ever  met.  Before 
he  was  twenty,  he  wrote  pamphlets  in  favor 
of  the  Revolution  and  stating  the  reason  why 
the  Americans  should  rebel,  which  were  ascribed 
to  the  ablest  men  in  the  colony.  He  was  the 
confidential  adviser  of  Washington  until  the 

r  1261 


PEEKSKILL   CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

close  of  the  war  and  afterwards,  as  a  member 
of  his  Cabinet,  until  Washington  retired  from  the 
Presidency.  He  was  largely  the  author  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  he 
created  our  revenue  system  so  wisely  that  it 
has  been  little  changed  as  it  came  from  his 
creative  mind.  After  a  few  months  Wash 
ington,  seeing  the  character  of  Burr,  dis 
continued  him  from  his  staff. 

One  of  the  most  famous  sayings  of  the 
French  poet  Beranger  is,  "As  long  as  I  write 
the  songs  of  the  people,  I  do  not  care  who  makes 
their  laws. "  New  England  has  been  fortunate  in 
men  of  genius,  who,  in  prose  and  poetry,  in 
oratory  and  narrative,  have  proclaimed  every 
incident  of  their  history  and  made  famous  every 
field  and  hill  and  rock  from  Plymouth  Rock  to 
Bunker  Hill.  The  Dutch,  and  those  who 
settled  with  them  in  New  York,  did  not  have 
these  chroniclers.  Happily,  however,  for  West- 
chester,  Washington  Irving  and  James  Feni- 
more  Cooper  lived  for  many  years  within  our 
borders.  We  are  indebted  to  Cooper  for  the 
story  of  "The  Spy,"  the  best  of  his  many  novels. 
The  spy  was  Harvey  Birch  in  the  book  and 
Enoch  Crosby  in  life.  To  understand  Enoch 
Crosby  one  must  know  the  conditions  in  our 
country  during  the  war.  There  was  always  at 
Peekskill  a  large  body  of  American  troops, 
sometimes  including  the  main  body  of  the 
American  Army,  while  thirty  miles  below 

[127] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

were  the  British  outposts  and  forty  miles  below 
in  New  York  were  the  headquarters  of  the 
British  army.  The  inhabitants  of  West- 
chester  were  about  equally  divided  between 
those  whose  sympathy  was  with  the  patriot 
cause,  and  those  whose  sympathy  was  with  a 
continuance  of  relations  with  the  mother 
country.  Two  regiments  for  the  Continental 
and  three  of  loyalists  for  the  British  army 
were  raised  in  the  county.  In  addition  to  that 
nearly  every  male  was  an  irregular  belonging  to 
one  side  or  the  other.  Under  such  conditions 
spies  were  invaluable  and  received  no  mercy  on 
either  side.  All  the  accomplishments,  the 
wonderful  charm,  the  high  position  and  bril 
liant  future  of  Major  Andre*  could  not  save 
him,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  could  the  same 
considerations  save  Nathan  Hale. 

In  1777  that  stirring  patriot  and  stern  old 
fighter,  General  Israel  Putnam,  commanded  at 
Peekskill.  He  had  arrested  a  spy  named 
Edmund  Palmer.  He  was  of  such  considera 
tion  that  Sir  Henry  Clinton  sent  a  letter,  with 
a  flag  of  truce,  insisting  on  his  release.  In 
reply  was  sent  this  famous  answer:  "Head 
quarters,  seventh  August,  1777,  Sir:  Edmund 
Palmer,  an  officer  in  the  enemy's  service,  was 
taken  as  a  spy,  lurking  within  the  American 
lines.  He  has  been  tried  as  a  spy,  condemned 
as  a  spy  and  shall  be  executed  as  a  spy,  and 
the  flag  is  ordered  to  depart  immediately. 
[  128  ] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

Israel  Putnam."     "P.  S. — He  has  accordingly 
been  executed." 

Gallows  Hill,  just  north  of  where  we  are, 
has  remained  ever  since  a  memorial  of  this 
event.  A  spy  named  Strang  was  also  hanged 
on  the  old  oak  on  Academy  Hill.  To  em 
phasize  the  execution  and  terrorize  the  spies, 
General  McDougal  paraded  the  whole  army 
around  the  tree.  Enoch  Crosby  was  an 
apprentice  to  a  shoemaker  in  Peekskill  until 
he  was  twenty-one.  He  had  fought  as  a 
boy  in  the  French  and  Indian  War.  He 
returned  to  Connecticut  and  was  working  at 
his  trade  when  he  thought  it  his  duty  to 
join  the  American  army.  He  started  to  walk 
to  Peekskill  and,  stopping  at  farmers'  houses  on 
the  way,  learned  from  his  hosts  that  there  were 
secret  meetings  of  the  Tories  and  recruiting 
stations  for  the  enemy.  He  decided  that  he 
could  perform  better  service  to  his  country 
by  taking  the  risks  of  the  spy,  and  exposing 
these  secret  enemies.  He  unfolded  his  plan  to 
the  Committee  of  Safety,  of  whom  the  leading 
members  were  Col.  Van  Cortlandt  and  John 
Jay,  afterwards  Chief  Justice.  He  made  but 
one  request  which  was,  that  if  taken  and 
executed  justice  should  be  done  to  his  memory. 
He  was  in  more  danger  from  his  own  side  than 
the  other,  because,  in  order  to  have  the  con 
fidence  of  the  Tories,  learn  their  plans,  disclose 
their  places  of  meeting,  and  sometimes  be 

[129] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

captured  with  them,  he  had  to  appear  to  his 
own  people  as  the  enemy's  spy.  He  was 
rescued  from  death  after  condemnation  several 
times  by  the  Committee  of  Safety,  or  by  General 
Washington.  Of  course,  this  had  to  be  done 
secretly  and  dramatically  by  providing  means 
of  escape  always  attended  with  great  peril. 
His  services  were  of  incalculable  value.  After 
the  war,  he  purchased  a  farm  of  230  acres  in 
the  western  part  of  the  county,  became  a 
supervisor  and  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  lived 
until  past  eighty-five  years  of  age.  His  story 
was  told  to  Fenimore  Cooper  by  Chief  Justice 
Jay,  who,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  knew  every  detail.  When  I  was  a  boy 
the  place  where  Harvey  Birch  hid,  in  the  hill 
overlooking  the  village  on  the  north,  was  a 
place  of  great  interest  and  frequent  visitation, 
and  inspiration  in  the  study  of  American 
history. 

We  are  here  to-night  under  the  auspices  of 
Abraham  Vosburgh  Post  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  and  this  brings  us  to  the 
service  rendered  by  our  town  in  the  Civil 
War.  When  I  was  a  boy  there  were  still 
surviving  in  the  village  a  number  of  veterans 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  They  were  always 
in  evidence  on  the  Fourth  of  July  and  other 
patriotic  occasions.  So,  we  have  with  us 
to-day  many  survivors  of  the  war  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union.  We  furnished  two 
[130] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

remarkable  soldiers,  Col.  Garrett  Dyckman  and 
Gen.  J.  Howard  Kitching.  Colonel  Dyckman 
received  repeated  commendations  for  gallantry 
in  the  field.  I  secured  the  appointment  of 
Colonel  Kitching  as  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the 
Westchester  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Morris.  When  Morris  was  made  a  Brigadier 
General,  Colonel  Kitching  became  commander 
of  the  regiment.  After  winning  honors  and 
distinction  in  many  battles  he  was  mortally 
wounded  at  Cedar  Creek.  Another  officer  of 
that  regiment  was  Major  Edmund  B.  Travis. 
I  have  three  recollections  as  vivid  to-day  as 
in  the  past.  It  was  a  beautiful  Sunday  morn 
ing  when  the  churches  closed  their  morning 
services,  and  all  the  people  were  on  their  way 
home.  They  were  met  by  boys  shouting  the 
New  York  papers  which  had  just  arrived,  and 
which  contained  an  account  of  the  firing  on 
Sumter.  Every  one  grasped  the  terrible  mean 
ing  and  the  frightful  consequences  of  this 
bombardment.  In  answer  to  the  first  call  of 
the  President,  a  company  was  raised  in  the 
village  and,  attended  by  the  whole  population 
to  the  depot,  started  for  the  war.  It  is  sin 
gular  how  soon  we  become  dulled  and  indifferent 
to  tragedies.  We  feel  it  now  in  this  world 
war,  when  horrors  of  battle  and  of  starving 
people,  of  unequaled  magnitude  in  the  past,  are 
occurring  every  day  and  scarce  receive  any 
attention  or  consideration.  So  frequent  had 
[131] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

been  the  enlistments  and  departures  for  the 
front  that  when  Major  Travis,  who  had  en 
rolled  a  company  from  our  village  boys, 
marched  through  the  streets  on  Saturday,  our 
market  day,  to  the  depot,  the  crowds  engaged 
in  marketing  and  buying  and  selling  neither 
stopped  their  merchandising,  nor  turned  to 
gaze  at  the  departing  soldiers,  nor  raised  a 
cheer.  It  was  an  ordinary  event  of  the  times. 
I  was  adjutant  of  the  18th  Regiment  of  the 
National  Guard  and  received  an  order  one 
evening  from  the  Adjutant  General  of  the 
State  to  have  the  regiment  mustered  in  at 
Yonkers  to  proceed  to  the  front  in  three  days 
to  assist  in  repelling  the  invasion  which  was 
stopped  at  Gettysburg.  That  regiment  was 
composed  almost  entirely  of  business  men  and 
farmers  approaching  middle  life  and  having 
families.  In  that  way,  it  excited  far  more 
local  interest  than  did  the  heroic  departure  of 
young  volunteers.  General  Sherman,  one  of 
the  most  gallant  of  soldiers,  fascinating  com 
panions,  and  brilliant  of  men,  said  to  me 
banteringly  at  a  banquet  years  afterward,  "Tell 
us  what  the  18th  Regiment  of  the  National 
Guard  did."  "Well,"  I  said,  "General  Lee 
and  his  officers  were  graduates  of  West  Point. 
They  knew  from  that  association  the  history 
of  the  Highlands,  and  the  quality  of  the  men 
who  lived  there.  It  has  never  been  ascer 
tained  why  Lee  so  suddenly  decided  to  cross 
[1321 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

Harper's  Ferry  and  return  into  Virginia  with 
his  army,  but  it  is  a  historical  fact  that  this 
event,  which  ended  the  northern  campaign 
of  the  Confederates,  was  coincident  with  the 
arrival  of  the  18th  Regiment  at  Baltimore." 
This  town  contributed  to  the  Union  Army, 
during  the  Civil  War  1,180  men  out  of  a  popula 
tion  of  11,074.  The  same  percentage  applied 
to  the  population  of  the  United  States  to-day 
would  put  into  the  field  an  American  army  of 
over  ten  millions  of  men. 

We  turn  from  the  stirring  scenes  of  war 
to  a  brief  reference  to  our  town  in  peace.  The 
ruin  which  would  have  come  from  the  diversion 
of  our  trade  was  more  than  made  up  by  our 
enterprising  citizens  entering  the  field  of  manu 
factures.  While  our  population  was  long  ago 
sufficient  under  the  law  for  us  to  incorporate 
as  a  city,  we  are  proud  to  remain  as  the  largest 
village  in  the  United  States.  Co-incident  with 
material  progress  our  people  early  turned  their 
attention  to  education.  The  Academy,  built 
eighty  years  ago,  without  foreign  assistance, 
has  for  fourscore  years  prepared  boys  for 
college  and  usefulness  in  every  department  of 
active  life.  There  has  also  come  within  our 
limits  successful  institutions  for  learning,  both 
for  young  men  and  young  women,  which  are 
known  all  over  the  country.  Churches  of  all 
denominations  were  built  and  successfully  con 
tinued.  I  recall  the  first  minister  I  remember, 
[133] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

the  Rev.  William  Marshall  of  the  First  Presby 
terian  Church.  He  was  born  in  Scotland  and 
his  accent  was  so  broad  that  it  was  a  liberal 
education  to  understand  him,  but  he  was  a 
very  learned  man  and  a  wonderful  doctrinal 
theologian.  When  my  mother,  who  was  a 
devoted  member  of  his  church,  as  was  her 
mother,  told  him  of  her  approaching  mar 
riage  and  asked  him  to  perform  the  ceremony 
he  said,  "Martha,  marriage  is  a  rabble  and  a 
rout,  those  who  are  out  wish  they  were  in, 
and  those  who  are  in  wish  they  were  out." 
That  this  warning  of  the  venerable  pastor 
made  no  impression  upon  my  mother,  I  am  a 
living  and  happy  witness. 

We  glory  in  the  Hudson.  I  have  celebrated 
it,  and  incidentally  Peekskill,  all  over  the 
world.  In  order  to  give  local  color,  I  used  to 
locate  all  my  stories  used  to  illustrate  points 
in  speeches  in  our  village.  In  London  the 
newspapers  have  booths  in  the  streets  and  in  char 
coal  on  white  paper  give  headlines  of  the  contents 
of  each.  Walking  one  day  down  Piccadilly  my 
eye  caught  the  sign  on  one  of  these  adver 
tisements,  "What  happens  up  in  Peekskill." 
I  bought  the  paper  and  found  several  columns 
with  this  heading:  "Chauncey  Depew,  a  well- 
known  visitor  among  us,  was  born  at  Peeks- 
kill-on-the-Hudson,  forty  miles  from  New  York. 
Peekskill  is  inhabited  by  a  singular  and  original 
people  of  whom  Mr.  Depew  is  fond  of  telling. 
[134] 


PEEKSKILL    CENTENNIAL   ADDRESS 

The  following  are  some  of  the  things  which  he 
says  happened  up  in  Peekskill." 

When  I  first  sailed  down  the  Rhine,  I  heard 
so  much  and  read  so  much  about  it  that  I  ex 
pected  to  discover  the  most  wonderful  of  rivers. 
I  do  not  think  it  was  local  pride  or  partisanship 
which  led  me  to  conclude  that  in  beauty, 
picturesqueness  and  grandeur  it  did  not  equal 
our  Hudson.  Its  great  charms  were  in  the 
legends  which  invested  with  a  story  generally 
tragic  every  turn,  crag  and  castle.  Happily 
the  genius  of  Washington  Irving  has  done 
much  to  make  classic  our  own  Hudson.  "The 
Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow"  endures  and  will 
endure  (though  the  old  bridge  has  disappeared) 
as  long  as  literature  lives.  "The  Phantom 
Ship"  will  forever  fly  in  wild  storms  up  and 
down  the  river.  "The  Little  Bulbous  Bottomed 
Dutch  Goblin"  in  trunk  hose  and  sugar-loaf 
hat  with  speaking  trumpet  in  his  hand,  who 
keeps  the  Dunderberg  opposite  us,  still  reigns 
there  supreme.  In  stormy  weather  he  increases 
the  rattling  of  the  thunder  and  the  fierceness 
of  the  gale.  Anthony's  Nose  rises  to  the  north 
of  us,  and,  as  we  pass  through  it  on  the  railroad, 
or  around  it  on  the  steamboat,  there  is  recalled 
to  us  Irving' s  graphic  description  of  how 
Anthony  Van  Corlear,  the  trumpeter  of  the 
New  Netherlands,  whose  nose  was  the  largest 
and  most  highly  colored  in  the  Province,  looked 
over  the  side  of  the  boat  and  the  rays  of  the 
f  135] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

rising  sun  striking  his  nose  glanced  off  into  the 
water  and  killed  a  mighty  sturgeon.  When 
Governor  Stuyvesant,  who  was  on  board, 
heard  the  story  and  enjoyed  the  sturgeon,  he 
said,  hereafter  this  promontory  shall  be  known 
as  " Anthony's  Nose."  So  the  tale  of  Rip 
Van  Winkle  has  made  the  Catskills  classic 
ground. 

My  friends,  we  stand  on  holy  ground,  it 
has  been  made  sacred  by  the  presence  of 
Washington  and  Lafayette,  of  Rochambeau, 
Greene  and  Putnam.  Within  our  borders  were 
matured  the  plans  which  made  possible  the 
victorious  issue  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
founding  of  the  American  Republic.  Our  soil 
has  been  hallowed  by  the  blood  of  patriots 
who  gave  their  lives  for  their  country.  The 
student  of  the  early  struggles  for  liberty  and 
independence  must  come  constantly  back  to 
the  pages  which  recount  what  was  done  here, 
and  who  were  the  actors  here  in  the  great 
drama  of  the  creation  of  a  free  nation.  It  is  a 
rare  privilege  for  us  and  a  grand  lesson  for 
every  one,  in  all  succeeding  generations,  that 
we  can  here  receive  and  our  posterity  always 
be  blessed  by  new  baptisms  of  liberty. 


136 


Speech    at    the   National  Fertilizer  Banquet, 
Hot  Springs,  Va.,  July  12,  1916. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  very  much  gratified  to  be  present  here 
with  you  to-night.  Your  invitation  was  an 
agreeable  change  from  the  daily  routine  of  a 
summer  health  resort,  but  I  am  at  a  loss  what 
to  say  to  you.  What  I  do  not  know  about 
fertilizer,  and  what  you  do  put  together  would 
fill  a  library.  I  attended  your  business  meeting 
this  morning  in  search  of  points.  From  the 
addresses,  I  gathered  two  ideas  given  in  the 
way  of  advice.  One  was  in  labelling  and 
describing  your  products  as  to  their  merits 
and  what  they  would  accomplish,  not  to  use 
patent  medicine  methods.  The  second  was  not 
to  lie  to  your  banker.  As  I  am  neither  an 
expert  nor  a  banker  I  cannot  pursue  those  lines. 

When  I  was  the  Chief  Executive,  as  Presi 
dent,  of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  and 
competition  was  fierce,  fiercer  than  ever  between 
rival  lines,  I  was  accustomed  to  attend  the 
banquets  of  the  commercial,  industrial  and 
manufacturing  organizations  of  the  country, 
which  were  held  in  New  York  annually.  At 
first  there  were  not  many  because  each  in 
cluded  all  subordinate  lines.  The  best  evidence 
of  the  growth  of  industry  was  that  in  the 

[137] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

course  of  years  each  subordinate  line  became 
important  enough  to  have  an  organization  of 
its  own.  Among  carriage  makers  for  instance 
came  the  division  of  body  makers,  truck  makers, 
wheel  makers,  etc.  So  in  the  jewelery  and  silver 
ware  came  their  special  divisions,  but  this  is 
the  first  time  I  have  ever  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  a  Fertilizer  Convention.  From  my 
observation  of  you  in  your  hours  of  relaxation 
here  for  the  past  few  days  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  every  one  of  you  can  be  truth 
fully  hailed  with  the  sentiment  "he  is  a  jolly 
good  fellow. "  Certainly  you  have  mingled 
business  and  fun  in  a  way  most  instructive  to 
tired  workers  in  any  line  of  life. 

Fifty-eight  years  ago  I  was  admitted  to  the 
Bar,  opened  my  office  and  nailed  my  shingle 
to  the  door  in  Peekskill,  then  as  now  one  of 
the  centers  of  American  culture  and  influence. 
To  secure  clients  and  become  known  I  addressed 
Sunday  school  picnics,  county  Bible  societies, 
church  anniversaries,  town  meetings,  political 
gatherings,  and  firemen's  competitions  of  the 
organization  at  different  places  along  the  Hud 
son  for  the  improving  purpose  among  the  hand 
machines  of  those  days,  to  see  which  could 
win  the  prize  by  squirting  the  highest.  Among 
other  of  these  activities  I  delivered  the  annual 
address  to  an  agricultural  society.  They  were 
primitive  affairs  nearly  sixty  years  ago.  When 
I  mounted  the  box  wagon  to  address  the  crowd 
[138] 


THE    NATIONAL    FERTILIZER   BANQUET 

over  the  tail  board  an  aged  farmer,  who  had 
been  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  said, 
introducing  me,  "Now,  my  friends,  we  will 
find  out  what  a  lawyer  knows  about  dirt  and 
potatoes,  and  what  he  can  teach  us."  They 
did  not  want  to  be  taught,  because  they 
believed  they  knew  it  all.  Fertilizers,  except 
what  nature  furnished  from  the  farm,  were 
wholly  unknown,  and  would  have  been  de 
spised  if  mentioned.  They  farmed  as  their 
fathers  had  done  since  the  first  settlement  of 
the  country.  They  had  taken  out  of  the  soil 
and  sent  to  New  York  in  their  crops,  most 
of  its  virtue,  with  the  result  that  none  of  their 
sons  remained  on  the  farms.  Farming  at  that 
early  period  had  not  progressed  any  from  the 
tune  when  Pocahontas  saved  the  life  of  Capt. 
John  Smith.  As  an  Indian  princess  she  demon 
strated  the  vigor  of  her  blood  by  creating  the 
best  families  in  Virginia.  It  is  a  happy  and 
poetic  sentiment  in  the  cycles  of  time  and  its 
rewards  that  this  merciful,  lovely  and  savage 
princess  should  have  one  of  her  descendents 
to-day  beautiful,  gracious  and  cultured  in  the 
White  House,  the  first  lady  of  the  land.  When 
that  Revolutionary  soldier  spoke  those  rather 
contemptuous  words  of  the  potato  he  little 
realized  its  future. 

Vice-President  Morton  in  an  address  at  the 
time  of  the  World's  Fair  celebrating  the  four 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of 

[  1391 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

America  by  Columbus  brought  out  the  fact 
which  few,  if  any  knew,  that  the  potato  was 
one  of  the  contributions  of  the  New  World  to 
the  Old.  I  think  most  of  his  auditors  thought 
that  the  potato  had  originated  in  Ireland. 

We  have  in  this  country  one  hundred  mil 
lion  people.  The  babies  do  not  eat  potatoes, 
nor  the  sick  nor  many  chronic  invalids,  and 
yet  the  remainder,'  according  to  the  State 
Statistician,  who  always  scares  me,  devour 
enough  potatoes  to  make  an  eight  ounce 
tuber  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the 
United  States.  Here  is  a  sure  crop,  a  certain 
market,  a  living  and  a  profit  if  the  farmer  under 
stands  his  business,  and  yet  on  what  we  would 
regard  as  the  old  worn  out  soil  of  Germany  they 
raise  three  times  the  bushels  of  potatoes  per 
acre  that  we  do  in  the  United  States. 

There  was  a  meeting  within  the  last  few  days 
at  Cornell  University  of  experts  in  American 
agriculture.  They  made  the  startling  asser 
tion  that  one-third  of  the  farmers  of  the  United 
States  are  losing  money,  and  would  be  better 
off  if  they  abandoned  their  lands  and  became 
farm  laborers.  One- third,  in  the  language  of 
the  report,  break  even,  which  means  they  had 
no  money  over  the  school  bills  of  the  boys  and 
girls,  for  the  new  gown  for  the  wife,  nor  the 
new  hat  for  Easter  Sunday  for  mother.  The 
other  third  make  money,  they  are  your  cus 
tomers. 

[140] 


THE    NATIONAL   FERTILIZER   BANQUET 

The  Penal  Code  has  a  long  and  lamentable 
description  of  crimes  and  punishments  which 
fit,  but  it  is  a  well-known  maxim  of  the  law,  that 
you  cannot  indict  a  whole  people,  and  yet  the 
American  people  in  the  treatment  of  this  most 
magnificent  gift  of  God  to  the  world,  the  North 
American  Continent,  have  been  guilty  of  crime 
to  posterity  in  the  way  they  have  used  this 
glorious  heritage.  Mother  Earth  is  the  most 
generous  parent.  She  gives  all  that  she  has 
and  only  asks  of  her  children  the  food  that  would 
keep  up  her  strength.  We  sap  her  vitality  in 
the  crops  which  we  send  to  the  markets  at 
home  and  abroad,  and  then  we  deny  her  the 
food  which  she  requires.  The  result  is  that 
like  the  starved  horse  or  man  she  staggers  on, 
but  is  of  little  service. 

I  know  of  no  sight  more  inspiring  than  to 
ride  through  the  fields  of  France,  Germany, 
Belgium  and  Holland  during  the  harvest  season. 
These  lands  have  been  producing  their  annual 
crops  for  three  thousand  years.  With  their 
abundance  they  fed  the  legions  of  Caesar,  as 
they  are  now  feeding  the  legions  of  Germany. 
Take  the  leading  crops  for  the  support  of  man 
kind,  wheat,  corn,  rye,  oats  and  potatoes,  and 
the  average  yield  per  acre  in  Germany  to-day 
is  from  twice  to  three  times  the  average  yield 
per  acre  in  the  United  States.  It  was  not 
always  so,  for  the  virgin  soil  of  our  country 
before  it  was  exhausted  did  quite  as  well.  If 
[1411 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

you  look  for  the  reason  statistics  tell  the  story. 
Germany,  I  think,  but  I  have  not  the  figures, 
has  a  tillable  acreage  about  as  large  as  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  yet  she  used  in  1912 
more  fertilizers,  more  plant  food  and  more  of  the 
things  that  restore  land  and  keep  it  healthy 
than  all  of  the  United  States  put  together.  In 
other  words,  about  two  per  cent,  beat  ninety- 
eight  per  cent.  All  of  this  has  been  accom 
plished  by  organization. 

There  have  been  two  marvelous  organizers 
in  modern  history,  one  was  Washington  who 
organized  and  placed  upon  a  firm  basis  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  other  was 
Bismarck.  Bismarck  set  out  to  make  Prussia 
the  strongest  of  the  German  States,  to  con 
solidate  the  German  people  into  an  empire,  by 
putting  all  the  German  States  into  a  federa 
tion  under  Prussia,  and  to  make  the  Prussian 
king  the  emperor,  and  consolidate  his  throne 
beyond  peril.  Then  he  organized  Germany 
industrially,  agriculturally,  financially  and  in  a 
military  and  naval  way,  so  as  to  be  superior 
to  the  world.  The  basis  of  his  whole  scheme 
was  education.  He  took  the  boy  and  carried 
him  under  the  direction  of  the  government 
from  the  kindergarten  through  the  higher 
schools  and  built  him  for  the  service  of  the 
government,  making  him  a  most  efficient  agent 
for  the  power  of  the  government,  and  at  the 
same  time  for  his  own  welfare.  We  see  the 

[142] 


THE    NATIONAL   FERTILIZER   BANQUET 

result  to-day;  before  the  war  the  production 
of  the  German  schools  trained  for  foreign 
commerce  were  successfully  invading  British 
possessions  and  taking  then*  trade  from  the 
mother  country  in  the  sale  of  German  prod 
ucts,  and  also  with  equal  success  capturing 
the  markets  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  South 
America. 

In  this  terrific  contest  this  perfect  organiza 
tion  has  accomplished  miracles.  It  has  enabled 
Germany,  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world 
as  to  food  supplies,  to  feed  her  armies  and  her 
people.  Napoleon  said  that  an  army  marched 
and  fought  upon  its  belly.  We  have  with  us 
many  good  citizens  who  are  opposed  to 
organization  of  any  kind,  they  say  it  leads  to 
war.  I  have  spent  every  summer  for  many 
years  in  Switzerland  and  certainly  that  is  not  a 
military  country,  and  yet  from  the  kinder 
garten  to  the  university  every  Swiss  boy  is 
trained  to  serve  his  country  in  some  capacity. 
There  is  Switzerland  in  the  midst  of  the  surging 
flames  about  her,  and  yet  with  four  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  of  these  admirably  trained 
sons  of  hers  her  borders  are  safe,  and  her 
people  secure. 

It  is  not  all  of  life  to  make  and  sell  auto 
mobiles  or  to  make  in  a  half  dozen  years  one 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  but  it  adds  enor 
mously  to  the  value  of  citizenship  and  the  worth 
of  a  country  to  have  its  people  prepared  and 
[143] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

willing  with  self-sacrificing  patriotism  to  meet 
and  defend  its  institutions  and  liberties.  A 
country  like  ours  so  prepared  would  never  be 
attacked  and  it  would  pursue  the  destiny 
which  the  Lord  has  placed  upon  it  of  liberty 
and  humanity  until  these  virtues  impressed 
all  the  world. 

Well,  gentlemen,  I  congratulate  you  upon 
your  organization.  I  remember  once  when 
President  Arthur,  who  was  a  joker,  intro 
duced  some  eminent  lawyers  in  New  York  who 
were  with  him  to  one  of  the  famous  states 
men  of  his  time,  saying  to  the  statesman:  "I 
am  happy  to  present  to  you  the  leading  officers 
of  the  Society  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira. " 
The  statesman  was  long  and  strong  on  how  to 
keep  a  constituency  elective  after  election  and 
mighty  short  on  the  Scriptures.  He  said: 
"Mr.  President,  I  am  delighted  to  meet  these 
gentlemen;  I  do  not  share  in  the  prejudices 
now  so  common  against  organizations,  I  think 
they  are  useful.  If  I  remember  rightly  I  at 
one  time  received  a  certificate  informing  me 
that  I  had  been  elected  an  honorary  member 
of  a  society  bearing  the  name  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  and  I  was  proud  of  it." 

Now  your  organization  has  such  an  abun 
dance  of  truth  that  you  never  could  qualify 
for  the  Ananias  Club.  You  fulfill  a  high  measure 
of  business  virtue  of  helping  others  by  helping 
yourselves.  When  you  have  educated  by  your 
[144] 


THE    NATIONAL   FERTILIZER   BANQUET 

circulars  and  letters  a  community  that  will 
grow  three  crops  where  one  grew  before,  you 
have  performed  a  patriotic  service  for  the 
country  and  made  a  handsome  profit  for 
yourselves,  as  this  can  only  be  done  by  use  of 
what  you  produce. 

You  are  doing  great  things.  Every  once  in  a 
while,  I  read  in  the  paper  where  one  of  your 
agents  or  missionaries  has  gone  to  the  bright 
boy  of  a  farm  and  shown  him  the  methods  of 
intensive  cultivation  and  better  farming,  so 
that  boy  is  raising  five  times  as  much  corn  or 
wheat  on  his  little  five  acres  as  his  father  did. 
Now,  does  that  teach  his  father  any  of  those 
scientific  methods?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  He 
keeps  on  farming  the  way  his  great-grand 
fathers  farmed  before  him,  and  he  thinks  that 
boy  of  his  is  a  freak,  and  instead  of  raising  him 
to  be  a  farmer,  he  educates  him  to  be  a  com 
mercial  traveler  for  a  fertilizer  company.  But 
after  a  while  dad  surrenders,  and  the  whole 
neighborhood  with  him  becomes  prosperous. 

I  noticed  in  to-day's  paper,  and  taking  them 
all  I  can  only  read  the  headlines,  that  the 
U-boat,  that  marvel  of  marine  success  which 
landed  in  Baltimore,  was  getting  in  fighting 
trim  for  its  return,  and  then  another  headline 
said:  " Organizing  to  fight  the  Hessians." 
My  mind  went  back  instantly  to  the  earlier 
period  of  my  boyhood  when  memory  was  very 
fresh  of  the  Hessians  who  were  with  Burgoyne 

[145] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

at  Saratoga,  with  Clinton  in  New  York,  and 
with  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown.  Then  I  saw  in 
the  same  paper  the  headline  of  President 
Wilson's  speech  (it  takes  time,  but  I  read  all 
the  President's  speeches,  especially  his  last), 
"Don't  butt  in,"  and  wondered  if  he  was  again 
warlike.  In  reading  the  text  I  found,  however, 
that  the  organization  to  fight  the  Hessian  was 
in  a  despatch  from  Hot  Springs  stating  that 
you  had  organized  to  fight  the  Hessian  fly. 
Even  Henry  Ford  and  the  weakest  might 
approve  your  warfare  on  the  Hessian  fly. 

Coming  out  of  a  movie  show,  after  a  sensa 
tional  play  here  the  other  evening,  as  we  passed 
a  table  a  young  lady  was  pressing  upon  her 
escort  a  highball.  "No,  my  dear,"  he  answered, 
"I  am  so  full  of  emotion  I  have  no  place  for  a 
drink."  Afterwards  he  took  it,  that  was  not 
temperance.  The  prohibitionist  has  no  hope 
for  him,  but  you  gentlemen  mingling  with 
your  sympathy  for  the  farmer  a  determination 
that  he  shall  know  what  is  good  for  htm,  require 
only  enthusiasm  in  your  business  to  serve  your 
country  and  enrich  yourselves. 

It  is  for  you  to  remove  the  reproach  upon 
American  agriculture.  It  is  for  you  to  restore 
the  days  when  the  finest  rhetoric  in  American 
eloquence  flowered  in  praise  and  in  glorying 
that  the  United  States  was  to  be  self-sustaining, 
independent  of  all  the  earth,  and  the  granary 
of  the  world. 

[146] 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Twilight 
Club  to  Mr.  Otis  Skinner,  Hotel  Biltmore, 
New  York,  October  29,  1916. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  a  worthy  tribute  which  you  are  paying 
to  our  friend,  Mr.  Otis  Skinner.  I  am  very 
glad  to  join  you  in  this  deserved  compliment. 
Mr.  Skinner  represents  conspicuously  many 
years  which  cover  the  best  traditions  of  the 
American  stage.  I  have  been  an  active  theatre 
goer  for  over  half  a  century.  I  believe  in  the 
educational  value  of  worthy  plays  and  the 
inspiration  in  the  interpretation  of  character 
by  great  actors.  We  hear  much  of  the  degra 
dation  of  the  stage  and  the  deplorable  results 
of  its  decadence.  I  have  been  on  the  platform, 
as  a  public  speaker,  for  over  sixty  years.  It  is 
my  experience  and  observation  that,  in  every 
field  of  intellectual  endeavor,  there  are  periods 
of  exaltation  and  depression.  In  literature  we 
will  have  an  age  of  wonderful  genius  to  be 
followed  by  many  years  of  dull  mediocrity. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  pulpit  and  of  the  bar. 
It  is  especially  marked  in  the  halls  of  Congress 
and  in  the  Parliaments  of  Nations.  The 
people  want  the  best  but  they  must  take  what 
the  harvest  gives.  Every  year  is  not  a  vintage 
one.  For  the  stage,  the  trouble  may  be  with 
[1471 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

managers  or  with  actors,  but  not  with  the 
public.  We  hear  often  that  Shakespeare  is 
played  out  and  that  the  classic  drama  no 
longer  attracts,  but  if  there  suddenly  appears 
a  Charles  Kean  or  a  Charlotte  Cushman,  a 
Macready,  an  Edwin  Booth,  or  an  Adelaide 
Neilson,  the  town  goes  wild  and  Shakespeare 
comes  again  into  his  own. 

The  presence  of  Mr.  Skinner  stirs  the  memory 
and  arouses  reminiscences.  I  knew  slightly 
Mr.  Wallack,  and  intimately  Augustin  Daly 
and  A.  M.  Palmer.  They  were  all  great 
managers.  My  earliest  sensations,  ending  at 
that  time  unhappily,  were  when  I  was  a  country 
boy.  There  had  been  a  fearful  massacre  by 
the  Indians.  The  United  States,  with  all  its 
resources,  was  unable  to  capture  these  savage 
chiefs  but  Barnum  secured  them  for  his  museum 
theatre  then  at  the  corner  of  Broadway  and 
Ann  Street.  Like  all  boys  I  had  been  anxious 
to  go  out  on  the  Plains  and  fight  the  Indians, 
but  got  no  nearer  to  them  than  seeing  the 
warriors  at  Barnum's.  In  feathers  and  paint, 
with  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife,  they  were  a 
fearsome  lot.  Their  yells  and  war  whoops  were 
blood-curdling.  My  visit  was  on  the  hottest 
day  in  August.  The  Indian  Chiefs  were 
wrapped  in  Buffalo  robes,  highly  ornamented 
and  with  heavily  laden  war  caps  upon  their 
heads.  After  the  crowd  had  disappeared  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  performance,  I  still 
[148] 


TRIBUTE    TO   MR.    OTIS    SKINNER 

lingered  awestruck  and  fascinated.  Then  the 
allusion  was  dissipated  by  the  Pawnee  Chief 
saying  to  his  Sioux  Ally,  "Moike,  if  we  have 
to  stand  here  mouch  longer,  I'll  be  nothing  but 
a  grease-spot." 

My  delight  later,  and  it  was  a  genuine  one, 
was  in  the  theatre  of  Burton  on  Broadway, 
near  Bond  Street.  It  then  approached  the  city 
limits.  John  Broughan  was  a  perennial  de 
light.  His  perfect  elocution  and  rich  brogue, 
his  keen  apprehension  of  characters  and  situa 
tions  and  his  wonderful  portrayal  of  humor  and 
human  nature,  with  its  weaknesses  and  follies, 
can  never  be  forgotten.  Although  it  is  over 
forty  years  ago,  I  remember  a  burlesque  on 
"The  Merchant  of  Venice"  in  which  Broughan 
appeared  as  Shylock.  Nothing  has  ever 
equalled  the  rage  and  scorn  with  which  he 
assailed  the  claims  of  Christian  superiority. 
I  recall  him  now  and  the  way  in  which  he  roared 
the  lines,  "This  Christian  dog,  has  he  any 
more  fingers,  or  any  more  toes,  or  any  more 
eyes,  or  any  more  nose,  than  the  Jew?"  Edwin 
Forrest  did  not  attract  me,  with  his  huge  bulk; 
he  had  tremendous  fire  and  vigor,  but  he  failed 
to  catch  the  intellectual  significance  of  his 
characters,  although  as  a  savage  he  was  superb. 
I  never  have  been  impressed,  although  I  have 
seen  most  of  them,  with  any  actor  like  Edwin 
Booth.  It  was  a  triumph  of  mind  over  matter, 
although  small  of  stature  he  rose  to  great 
[149] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

heights  by  sheer  intellectuality.  You  felt  the 
force  and  fineness,  the  vigor  and  refinement, 
the  absorbing  grasp  of  his  representation. 
It  is  a  tribute  to  his  greatness  that  among  his 
admirers,  some  thought  him  best  as  " Hamlet," 
some  as  " Othello"  some  as  "lago,"  some  as 
" Macbeth,"  but  I  never  could  see  him  often 
enough  as  "Richelieu."  When  facing  the  cour 
tiers,  who  were  encompassing  his  ruin,  and  had 
nearly  destroyed  him,  he  drew  around  himself 
an  imaginary  circle,  and  calling  upon  any 
assassin  to  dare  cross  it  at  the  curse  of  Rome, 
he  rose  to  heights  never  before  attained  and 
in  the  thrill  of  the  moment  it  was  easy  to 
see  the  reeling  state  once  more  safe  in  the  hands 
of  its  master.  Booth  was  driven  from  the 
stage  for  several  years  because  of  the  indigna 
tion  aroused  by  the  assassination  by  his  brother, 
J.  Wilkes  Booth,  of  President  Lincoln.  A 
large  Committee  thought  it  was  a  public  mis 
fortune  that  this  genius  should  be  lost  because 
of  a  crime  which  was  in  no  sense  his  and  so 
they  invited  him  to  give  a  presentation  of 
" Hamlet"  at  a  theatre  which  they  secured, 
and  before  an  audience  selected,  ticketed,  and 
comprising  the  best  in  every  department  of  the 
activities  of  the  metropolis.  The  performance 
was  a  success,  the  press  helped,  and  Booth 
came  instantly  back  into  popularity  and  public 
esteem.  A  dinner  was  given  to  celebrate  and 
emphasize  Booth's  return  by  a  distinguished 
[150] 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    OTIS   SKINNER 

lady,  Mrs.  John  Jacob  Astor,  who  was  then 
the  leader  of  New  York  Society.  She  gath 
ered  a  wonderful  assemblage  of  literature, 
journalism,  art,  and  the  professions.  Of 
course  Booth  was  on  her  right;  near  him 
was  a  very  distinguished  man,  nationally  and 
internationally.  Singularly  the  conversation 
ran  upon  the  topic,  "How  many  distin 
guished  men  had  ruined  their  reputations  by 
out-living  them,  and  how  many  had  been  for 
tunate  in  dying  at  the  height  of  their  fame." 
"Yes,"  said  this  distinguished  citizen,  "and 
the  most  extraordinary  instance  that  I  can 
recall  is  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He 
died  just  at  the  right  time  for  his  fame." 
I  never  have  seen  such  an  anti-climax.  Booth 
turned  deadly  pale;  in  the  hush  one  could 
have  heard  a  pin  drop.  The  assassination  and 
Wilkes  Booth,  the  assassin,  and  the  scene  in 
Ford's  Theatre  where  it  occurred,  appeared  with 
all  its  horrors  before  every  guest.  The  only 
one  equal  to  the  occasion  was  the  hostess; 
with  infinite  tact  and  grace  she  changed  the 
subject,  dispelled  the  gloom,  restored  cheer 
fulness  to  her  guest  of  honor,  and  comfort  and 
happiness  to  all  the  rest. 

Of  the  Wallack  Company,  I  recall  most 
vividly  John  Gilbert,  the  finest  comedian  I 
have  ever  seen.  Lester  Wallack  incomparable 
with  his  physical  beauty  as  a  soldier,  a  man 
of  fashion  and  a  gallant,  and  Mrs.  Hoey,  who 

[151] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

enacted  on  the  stage  the  Society  Lady  with 
the  same  grace  she  did  in  real  life,  as  a  leading 
hostess  of  the  city.  I  could  recall  many  of  the 
Daly  Company  but  time  compels  me  to  be 
brief.  I  knew  Ada  Rehan  when  she  was  a 
member  of  the  stock  company  at  Albany  while 
I  was  Secretary  of  State,  fifty- three  years  ago. 
She  did  not  then  give  promise  of  her  future  but 
Daly,  with  rare  instinct,  saw  it,  and  what 
training  could  do.  He  picked  in  the  same 
way  other  members  of  his  marvelous  company 
among  graduates  delivering  commencement 
addresses  in  the  schools.  I  said  to  Miss 
Rehan,  "In  your  present  play  you  have 
long  conversations  with  your  lover,  while 
the  stage  is  occupied  by  other  actors.  Is 
that  conversation  simulated  or  real? "  "Well, " 
she  said,  "night  before  last,  I  said  to  my 
lover,  for  we  had  to  seem  to  be  talking, 
'In  the  seat  on  the  center  aisle,  sixth  row  from 
the  front,  sits  Chauncey  Depew.  This  is  the 
third  time  he  has  been  here.  Do  you  think  it 
is  the  play,  or  that  it  is  me?' '  Now  that  was 
a  touch  of  genius.  Mr.  Daly  would  never  permit 
his  company,  or  any  member  of  it,  to  act  in  the 
usual  concert  on  the  ship  crossing  the  ocean. 
There  was  one  notable  exception.  It  was  the 
Fourth  of  July,  the  Captain  wanted  to  make  the 
affair  notable.  Daly  said  "No."  I  have 
always  found  that  the  ganglionic  nerve  exists 
in  everyone,  and  if  you  can  only  find  it, 
[152] 


TRIBUTE    TO    MR.    OTIS    SKINNER 

results  follow.  I  thought  I  knew  where  it  was  in 
Augustin  Daly,  so  I  said,  "Mr.  Daly,  it  is  a 
rare  opportunity  to  properly  celebrate  the 
Fourth  of  July,  the  birth  of  American  indepen 
dence,  and  the  old  flag  on  an  English  ship  on 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  requires  a  stage  manager 
of  rare  genius  to  so  arrange  as  to  get  all  the 
glory  possible  out  of  the  occasion,  and  not 
offend  the  other  nationalities  who  have  equal 
rights  on  the  ship.  There  is  no  man  living  but 
you  who  could  perform  this  difficult  task.  It 
is  an  opportunity  for  you  to  be  the  manager 
of  the  occasion.  Give  everybody  their  proper 
place  and  assign  me  where  you  like."  Daly 
became  instantly  master  of  the  occasion  and  its 
autocratic  manager.  Leading  members  of  his 
company  took  part.  I  delivered  the  oration. 
The  affair  was  such  a  success  that  Mr.  Daly 
repeated  it  in  the  second  cabin,  and  then  in 
the  steerage.  It  was  the  voyage  from  New 
York  and  the  people  in  the  steerage  were  mainly 
those  who  had  made  some  success  in  America 
and  were  going  over  to  visit  the  old  folks  at 
home  and  show  off  their  new  clothes  and 
prosperity.  The  result  was  they  decorated  the 
steerage  and  emptied  their  trunks  and  appeared 
in  their  best.  I  turned  to  Miss  Rehan,  and 
she  was  weeping,  the  tears  rolling  down  her 
cheeks.  She  had  just  acted  her  part  and 
been  wildly  cheered.  I  said,  "Why  cry?" 
"Oh,"  she  said,  "it  is  so  affecting,  and  full  of 
[  1531 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

pathos.  These  poor  people,  here  in  the  steer 
age,  never  saw  real  art  before. "  Daly's  theatre 
suppers  were  wonderful.  No  one  enjoyed  them 
so  much,  or  was  so  welcome  a  guest  as  General 
Sherman.  General  Sherman  was  a  genius, 
not  only  in  war,  but  as  a  speaker.  He  was  a 
marvelously  simple  and  natural  man.  On 
going  out  to  the  supper,  the  finest  piece  of 
acting  I  ever  saw,  was  Miss  Rehan  pretending 
to  be  in  doubt  whether  she  would  take  his  arm 
or  mine,  and  finally,  when  an  explosion  from 
the  indignant  old  hero  seemed  near,  with  in 
finite  grace  and  the  full  charm  of  her  velvet 
voice,  she  chose  the  General  and  allowed  him 
to  escort  her  in  triumph. 

The  best  after-dinner  speech  I  ever  heard 
was  from  Fanny  Davenport  at  one  of  these 
suppers.  The  play  had  been  so  late  that  the 
actors  and  actresses  could  not  get  home,  dress 
and  return,  before  two  o'clock,  or  later.  There 
were  many  speeches,  but  as  the  first  rays  of 
dawn  came  through  the  window  and  the  party 
was  about  to  break  up,  Fanny  Davenport  arose. 
She  was  a  vision  of  loveliness  and  glorious 
beauty.  In  a  few  minutes  her  enthralled 
auditors  listened  to  a  gem  of  oratory  heightened 
by  the  voice  and  manner,  the  animation  and 
grace,  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  young 
women  of  her  time.  The  effect  was  so  great 
that  one  of  the  most  eminent  journalists  and 
literary  men  of  that  period  walked  ten  blocks 

[1541 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    OTIS   SKINNER 

out  of  his  way  to  discuss  with  me  its  rarity, 
charm  and  beauty.  No  one  can  ever  forget 
dear  old  Mrs.  Gilbert,  or  the  amazingly 
humorous  James  Lewis,  of  the  Daly  Company. 

It  was  always  a  wonder  to  me  how  A.  M. 
Palmer  became  such  a  successful  manager. 
When  I  first  knew  him  he  was  an  officer  in  the 
Custom  House,  and  devoted  to  politics.  Then 
he  became  associated  with  Sheridan  Shook,  who 
was  also  devoted  to  politics  but  a  fine  business 
man,  and  a  district  leader.  With  rare  instinct 
and  appreciation,  Palmer  made  his  theatre  the 
home  of  melodrama. 

Clara  Morris  and  others  gave  to  his  stage 
national  distinction.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  man 
of  rare  gifts  as  a  musician  and  an  artist,  never 
went  to  see  a  play  unless  it  would  yield  to  him 
the  luxury  of  tears.  He  declared  to  me, 
coming  out  of  the  Union  Square  one  night 
with  his  red  eyes,  and  his  handkerchief  saturated 
with  brine,  that  there  never  was  such  a  theatre, 
never  such  a  company,  never  such  plays  and 
he  never  had  had  such  a  perfectly  satisfactory 
and  enjoyable  winter. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  claim  any  talent  as  a 
critic.  I  can  only  tell  what  impresses  me. 
Demosthenes  when  asked  what  was  the  secret 
of  oratory  answered,  " Action,  action,  action." 
The  first  necessity  of  a  good  actor  is  clear 
enunciation,  clear  enunciation,  clear  enuncia 
tion.  Adelaide  Neilson,  in  every  scene  of 

[1551 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

Juliette,  so  pronounced  the  words  that  they 
were  liquid  music  to  the  ear.  Henry  Irving,  in 
his  earlier  days  and  in  his  prime,  was  an  in 
spiration.  I  went  repeatedly  to  see  him  during 
his  last  visit,  and  could  scarcely  understand  a 
word  he  uttered.  Syllables,  words,  and  sen 
tences  ran  into  a  confused  jumble  of  sound. 
Except  for  his  fame,  he  would  have  played 
to  empty  houses.  I  heard  a  boy  shouting 
" extra"  and  telling  what  it  was  about,  when  a 
larger  boy  said  to  him,  "That  will  never  do, 
shout  ' extra,7  yell  ' extra,'  and  then  bawl 
1  boo-boo-boo, ' "  but  an  actor  is  not  selling 
newspapers.  I  have  known  speakers  of  great 
talent  and  fine  delivery  who  wearied  and 
perplexed  their  audiences  by  dropping  the  key 
words  of  their  sentences.  It  was  the  strength 
of  Daly  that  he  enforced  among  his  players 
clarity  of  utterance.  An  actor  has  no  right 
to  outrage  an  auditor  by  mouthing  a  beautiful 
passage  with  which  the  auditor  is  familiar,  or 
by  making  the  auditor  guess  what  he  said  in  a 
passage  with  which  the  auditor  is  not  familiar. 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Otis  Skinner  in 
Booth  Tarkington's  play  " Antonio"  this  week. 
It  was  virile,  natural  and  admirable,  his  enun 
ciation  fine.  The  speech  of  some  actors  and 
public  speakers  is  a  cryptogram  or  cipher.  No 
one  has  the  key.  Ignatius  Donnelly  in  many 
volumes  traced  a  cryptogram  which  he  claimed 
was  Lord  Bacon's  secret  confession  of  his 

[  156  1 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    OTIS   SKINNER 

authorship  of  Shakespeare's  works.  But  a 
more  perfect  cryptogram  than  Bacon's  is  found 
in  the  Forty-sixth  Psalm.  The  forty-sixth 
word  from  the  top  is  the  word  " shake."  The 
forty-sixth  word  from  the  bottom  is  the  word 
"speare."  Here  on  the  Bacon-Shakespeare 
theory  is  absolute  proof  that  the  author  of  the 
Psalms  was  not  King  David,  but  William 
Shakespeare. 

Our  friend  and  guest  to-night  is  with  John 
Drew,  I  believe,  the  only  survivor  of  that  most 
attractive  company  which  was  gathered  about 
Augustin  Daly.  That  brings  to  us  the  culture 
and  the  art  of  a  time  when  no  labor  and  no 
effort  were  too  great  to  achieve  success,  and  it  is 
a  source  not  only  of  gratification  to  us  all  who 
are  veterans,  but  of  guidance  and  instruction 
to  the  ambitious  youngsters  who  are  seeking 
fame  and  fortune  in  the  drama. 


157 


Speech  at  the  Luncheon  given  by  the  Pilgrims 
Society  to  the  Right  Reverend  Huyshe 
Wolcott  Yeatman-Biggs,  Bishop  of  Wor 
cester,  England,  November  6,  1916. 

Gentlemen: 

We  have  had  the  honor  to  entertain  dis 
tinguished  representatives  of  every  depart 
ment  in  the  life  of  our  kin  across  the  sea.  We 
have  welcomed  diplomats  and  soldiers,  admirals 
and  members  of  Parliament,  men  of  letters  and 
educators.  This  is  the  first  time,  however,  we 
have  had  the  pleasure  and  privilege  of  receiving 
the  Church. 

There  is  a  most  interesting  historical  relation 
ship  between  the  Church  of  England  and  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United 
States.  The  Colonies  had  the  Church  of 
England  as  the  established  one  in  most  of 
their  charters,  but  they  were  all  attached  to 
various  dioceses  in  England.  The  two  most 
interesting  representatives  of  the  English 
Church,  who  came  to  America,  were  the  Rev. 
James  Blair,  who  was  sent  over  by  the  Bishop 
of  London,  and  who  founded  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  the  famous  Bishop  Berkeley 
of  Cloyne,  who  was  so  impressed  while  at 
Newport  with  the  future  of  the  then  infant 
[1581 


TRIBUTE  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  WORCESTER 

colonies,  for  it  was  in  the  year  1729,  that  he 
wrote  this  immortal  and  prophetic  stanza: 

"Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way, 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day. 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

When  this  poem  is  recited,  as  is  often  the  case 
in  our  schools,  the  student  always  believes 
that  the  good  Bishop  saw  in  vision  the  republic 
of  the  United  States  as  it  is  and  will  be,  when 
in  his  last  line  he  wrote:  " Time's  noblest  off 
spring  is  the  last." 

After  the  independence  of  the  colonies,  and 
the  formation  of  the  republic,  our  people 
determined  upon  having  an  American  Church. 
They  elected  two  Bishops,  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Seabury  and  Dr.  William  Smith.  The  Arch 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  conservative  then  as 
always,  refused  to  raise  them  to  the  rank  of 
Bishop,  but  at  all  times  there  can  be  found 
in  the  British  Empire  a  protester  and  a  kicker 
among  the  Scotch,  and  so  the  Scotch  non- 
juring  Bishops  performed  the  ceremony  and 
consecrated  our  first  Bishops,  William  Smith 
and  Samuel  Seabury. 

At  every  gathering,  whether  of  the  Pilgrims 
of  the  United  States  or  of  the  Pilgrims  of  Great 
Britain,  or  on  any  international  occasion,  the 
sentiment  expressing  the  feeling  of  the  hour  is 
always  the  union  of  English  speaking  peoples 

[159] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

because  of  their  common  literature,  common 
law  and  common  language,  and  because  they 
are  the  equal  inheritors  of  great  names  who 
have  adorned  the  literature  of  the  world. 
But  there  is  a  nearer  and  closer  tie  in  the  English 
Bible  and  the  book  of  Common  Prayer.  It  is 
the  universal  and  unquestioned  testimony  that 
the  English  Bible,  that  inspired  translation  by 
the  convocation  at  Westminster,  has  done 
more  to  preserve  in  its  purity,  elegance  and 
power  our  common  English  tongue,  than  all 
other  literature  combined.  The  noble  liturgy 
of  the  book  of  Common  Prayer  is  now  in  use,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  in  nearly  all  our  religious 
communities. 

We  are  receiving  the  Bishop  on  the  day 
before  one  of  the  most  interesting,  exciting  and 
critical  elections  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States.  He  will  witness  the  wonderful  spectacle 
of  sixteen  millions  of  men  and  women  of  differ 
ent  ideals,  politics  and  beliefs,  going  to  the  polls 
to-morrow,  after  a  most  exciting  and  somewhat 
embittered  contest  to  vote  for  their  favorites, 
but  he  will  also  witness,  on  the  day  after  elec 
tion,  that  whoever  wins  the  verdict  will  be 
accepted  loyally  by  all.  He  will  witness  this 
finest  triumph  of  the  democratic  spirit,  after 
a  hundred  and  twenty  odd  years  of  self-govern 
ment  and  submission  to  the  will  of  majorities. 
£  Because  of  his  visit  here  being  at  this  critical 
period  every  agency  known  to  the  press  has 
[160] 


TRIBUTE  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  WORCESTER 

been  used  to  extort  from  the  Bishop  an  opinion 
upon  the  election.  A  distinguished  diplomat 
once  fell  to  these  insidious  wiles  and  ended  his 
career,  but  our  guest  has  the  art  of  the  diplomat 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  Bishop.  His  position 
has  been  the  perfection  of  tact  and  wisdom.  He 
could  not  help  saying  a  word  on  the  international 
situation,  but  while  speaking,  both  as  an 
Englishman  and  a  patriot,  upon  the  righteous 
ness  of  his  own  cause,  he  has  applauded  the 
position  of  the  United  States  because  of  what 
he  calls  "Our  Benevolent  Neutrality."  It  is 
benevolent,  for  our  markets  are  open  to  all 
the  world  for  what  they  may  need  and  which 
we  can  produce. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  very 
properly  issued  his  proclamation  that  both  as 
a  nation  and  as  individuals  we  should  be 
neutral.  Official  neutrality,  however,  cannot 
reach  the  heart  nor  control  the  mind.  The 
moral  force  of  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  vast 
majority  of  our  people  has  been  and  is  with 
the  cause  of  the  Allies.  We  have  a  cosmo 
politan  population.  On  its  proper  day  every 
year  the  English  and  those  of  English  descent 
gather  under  the  banner  of  St.  George,  the  Irish 
under  the  banner  of  St.  Patrick,  the  Scotch  under 
the  banner  of  St.  Andrew,  the  Welsh  under  the 
banner  of  St.  David,  the  French  on  the  birth 
day  of  Lafayette  and  the  Germans  in  their 
national  societies,  the  Scandinavians  and  Ital- 
[161] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

ians  in  theirs.  On  that  day  the  toast,  the 
eloquence,  the  story  and  song  is  for  the  glory 
and  achievement  of  their  ancestors,  and  that 
is  as  it  should  be  for  there  is  inspiration  in  the 
best  there  is  of  the  old  home.  But  whenever, 
and  wherever,  the  flag  waves,  or  the  interests 
of  the  United  States  are  involved,  we  are  all 
Americans. 

I  remember  being  in  London,  many  years 
ago,  when  the  American  Church  had  sent  as 
delegates  to  a  great  Church  convention  there, 
Bishop  Potter  of  New  York,  the  Bishop  of 
Albany  and  the  Bishop  of  Michigan.  I  was  told 
that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Bishops  as  they 
met  each  morning  to  greet  each  other  only  by 
titles,  as  " Good-morning,  London,"  " Good- 
morning,  New  York,"  " Good-morning,  Wor 
cester."  The  Bishop  of  Michigan  was  a  great 
favorite  but  it  was  difficult  for  his  brother 
churchmen  to  grasp  and  pronounce  this  strange 
Indian  name,  so  he  was  loudly  and  enthu 
siastically  greeted  one  day  by  an  admiring 
prelate  as  "How  are  you,  my  chicken?"  I  met 
Mr.  Gladstone  many  times  but  in  the  first 
opportunity  I  was  worsted  by  one  of  our 
Bishops  visiting  London.  It  was  a  dinner 
arranged  for  me  to  meet  Mr.  Gladstone  and, 
when  the  lady  next  him  retired  with  the  others, 
I  was  to  take  that  seat.  This  American  Bishop 
had  been  a  famous  athlete  in  his  college 
days  and  the  moment  the  ladies  left  he  made  a 
[162] 


TRIBUTE  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  WORCESTER 

flying  leap  over  the  chairs  and  landed  in  the 
seat  alongside  of  Mr.  Gladstone  which  had 
been  reserved  for  me.  He  engaged  the  great 
Statesman  in  one  of  his  favorite  controversies 
which  lasted  all  the  evening.  When  I  was  asked 
again  to  meet  Mr.  Gladstone,  I  said,  "With 
pleasure,  if  there  are  no  American  Bishops 
there." 

Our  guest,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  was,  in 
his  university  days  at  Oxford,  the  champion 
athlete  of  his  college.  His  training  has  done 
hun  good  service  in  the  work  of  the  Church 
Militant.  He  was  welcomed  with  enthusiasm 
and  bid  good-bye  with  regret  by  the  members  of 
that  great  historical  convocation  which  met 
in  St.  Louis.  We  laymen  and  Pilgrims  extend 
to  him  our  most  cordial  greetings.  Gentlemen, 
I  present  to  you,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester. 


r  163 


Address  before  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine  on  the  Art  of  Growing  Older 
and  the  Value  of  Interest  in  Public  Life, 
November  16,  1916. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Academy: 

When  Doctor  James  extended  to  me  your 
invitation,  I  felt  both  complimented  and 
alarmed.  It  is  always  a  pleasure  to  address  a 
body  of  scientists,  but  if  one  is  not  himself 
a  scientist,  he  approaches  his  audience  with 
much  trepidation. 

I  have  one  privilege,  however,  and  that  is 
age.  Presumption  is  never  excused  in  youth 
or  middle  life,  but  after  fourscore  years  there 
is  much  conceded  because  of  experience.  This 
experience  cannot  be  questioned  except  by  some 
older  than  the  speaker. 

Every  profession  is,  and  always  will  be,  in  the 
experimental  stage.  As  fast  as  one  difficulty  is 
removed,  or  the  cause  or  a  cure  of  one  dis 
ease  is  discovered,  new  complications  arise, 
so  that  we  are,  and  probably  will  always 
continue  to  be,  in  medicine  and  in  the  other 
professions  largely  experimenters.  The  ad 
vances  which  have  been  made  hi  medicine  and 
surgery  in  the  last  decade  are  marvelous  and 
almost  miraculous.  They  seem  to  prove  that 
it  is  possible  to  discover  how  to  live  forever, 
[1641 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

in  physical  and  mental  health.  In  two  years 
of  the  most  frightful  and  bloody  cataclysm  of 
all  the  centuries,  surgery  at  the  period  of  its 
highest  and  best  equipment  has  had  to  deal 
with  five  millions  of  cases.  There  have  been 
destructions  of  bone,  tissue,  nerves,  limbs  and 
dismemberment  inflicted  by  weapons  hitherto 
unknown  in  power  and  efficiency  and  of  a 
character  never  dreamed  of.  Surgery  has 
wonderfully  met  these  emergencies  and  has 
demonstrated  that  repair  and  substitution  for 
injured  and  destroyed  parts  of  the  human 
anatomy  have  practically  no  limits.  In  the 
ordinary  course  of  relations  between  the  doctor 
and  his  patients,  he  is  occupied  up  to  the 
patient's  meridian  of  life  in  preventing  vitality 
leading  to  excesses,  which  are  destructive  of 
health  and  longevity,  but  in  later  years  the 
doctor  struggles  to  prolong  life  by  discouraging 
efforts  which  weaken  vitality.  It  is  well  known 
that  while  recovery  is  easy  and  often  auto 
matic  in  earlier  years,  in  later  ones  recuperation 
is  slow  and  difficult. 

Happily  for  the  problem  of  growing  old, 
progress,  invention  and  discovery  have  done 
quite  as  much  for  humanity  as  for  the  arts 
and  industries.  My  memory  goes  back  very 
clearly  to  over  seventy  years  ago.  The  old 
men  and  the  old  women  who  were  in  evidence 
everywhere  no  longer  exist.  There  are  older 
men  and  women  than  were  then  in  age,  but 

[165] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

they  are  not  as  old.  Then,  and  for  the  im 
memorial  time  preceding,  with  approaching  old 
age  women  wore  caps,  which  emphasized  their 
antiquity,  and  worsted  shawls,  which  adver 
tised  their  poverty  of  blood,  while  men  retired 
from  their  life  work  and  sat  around  the  fire  at 
home  or  gossiped  in  groups  of  elder  brethren  on 
the  counter  and  nail  kegs  of  the  country  store. 
We  have  no  such  old  women  or  old  men  now. 
They  dress  so  much  alike  that  it  is  impossible 
to  tell  mothers  from  daughters. 

Shakespeare's  "  Seven  Ages  of  Men,"  which 
were  accepted  in  his  time,  and  for  many  centu 
ries  after,  no  longer  exist.  The  second  age,  "  the 
whining  schoolboy,  with  his  satchel  and  shining 
face  creeping  like  a  snail  unwillingly  to  school" 
is  now  on  the  ball  field  an  active  player  or  a 
fan  and  a  rooter  on  the  benches.  Shakespeare 
says  the  Sixth  Age  shifts  into  "the  lean  and 
slippered  pantaloons."  There  are  no  such 
people,  and  "with  his  big  manly  voice  turning 
again  to  childish  treble,  pipes  and  whistles." 
We  now  often  meet  in  the  pulpit  or  at  the  bar 
old  men  with  a  control  of  vocal  chords  and 
resonance  of  voice  which  gives  emphasis  to  the 
utterance  of  their  matured  wisdom.  Then 
Shakespeare  says,  "Last  of  all,  that  ends  this 
eventful  history,  is  second  childishness  and  mere 
oblivion,  sans  eyes,  sans  taste,  sans  teeth,  sans 
everything."  Science  has  overcome  all  that. 
The  dentist  has  supplied  teeth  which  answer 
[166] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

every  purpose  of  the  originals;  the  oculist  and 
the  optician  has  provided  eyeglasses  which, 
both  for  long  distance  and  reading,  are  often 
better  than  the  ones  which  nature  gives,  while, 
as  for  taste,  the  caterer  knows,  and  so  does 
the  cook  and  especially  the  good  wife,  that  it 
becomes  keener  and  more  exacting  with  the 
years. 

The  telephone  has  minimized  disabilities  or 
weaknesses  in  getting  around;  travel,  which  in 
the  early  days  was  nerve-racking  and  fatiguing 
to  the  last  degree,  now  transports  the  invalid 
or  the  aged  from  the  comforts  of  home  in 
luxurious  annihilation  of  distance  and  easy 
transmission  from  one  climate  to  another,  or 
from  the  fireside  to  the  cure.  Formerly,  on 
account  of  the  difficulties  of  communication,  a 
man's  interests  were  confined  within  a  narrow 
area,  and  almost  purely  local.  Now,  with  the 
cable  and  wireless,  and  without  any  exertion 
on  his  part,  the  news  of  the  world  and  what 
happened  everywhere  the  day  before,  in  every 
department  of  human  activity  and  interest, 
are  upon  his  breakfast  table  in  his  morning 
newspaper.  The  influence  of  this  one  con 
tribution  to  mental  activity  and  brain  food,  the 
two  things  which  help  for  longevity,  can  hardly 
be  estimated. 

The  ancients  apologized  for  old  age.  Cicero 
wrote  a  volume,  "De  Senectute,"  which  is  an 
apology  for  old  age.  One  of  the  most  famous  of 
[167] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

the  Roman  writers  said,  "When  you  are  at 
eighty,  pack  your  trunk,  the  end  has  come." 
No  one  now  apologizes  for  old  age,  elderly 
people  are  proud  of  it,  and  the  older  they  are, 
if  they  have  mental  and  physical  vigor,  the 
more  they  assert  their  superiority  and  it  is 
generally  recognized. 

Nothing  has  impressed  me  so  much  in  life 
as  the  influence  of  one  man,  or  one  utterance 
upon  the  thought  and  life  of  succeeding  genera 
tions.  There  are  many  examples  in  politics 
and  government.  You  gentlemen  of  the  medi 
cal  profession  still  take  the  oath  of  Hippocrates, 
and  succeeding  ages  have  been  able  to  add 
nothing  to  its  force.  Probably  there  is  no 
literature  in  the  world  which  has  so  influenced 
literature  and  pulpit  eloquence  and  teaching, 
as  "  The  Psalms, "  so  when  Moses  or  David  said, 
—the  world  believing  it  to  be  David — "  The  days 
of  our  years  are  threescore;  and  ten,  and  if  by  rea 
son  of  strength  they  are  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their 
strength  labor  and  sorrow. "  There  is  no  sentence 
in  sacred  writ  which  has  been  quoted  so  often,  or 
upon  which  so  much  emphasis  has  been  laid,  and 
from  which  so  many  lessons  have  been  taught.  It 
has  been  accepted  wherever  the  Bible  is  known  as 
a  semi-divine  declaration  of  the  limit  of  life  and 
the  utter  valuelessness  of  an  extension  beyond 
threescore  and  ten.  It  has  been  accepted  that 
such  an  extension  is  rather  a  punishment  than  a 
favor.  I  believe  that  millions  have  died 

[168] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

because  of  absorbing  interest  in  this  expression 
of  King  David.  You  gentlemen  of  the  pro 
fession  know  well  how  many  people  die  because 
of  being  obsessed  in  their  own  minds  that 
event  will  occur  at  a  specific  time.  When  I 
was  a  senior  at  Yale,  we  had  a  course  of  medical 
lectures  from  one  of  the  well-known  doctors  of 
that  time,  Doctor  Knight.  I  remember  of 
those  lectures  but  one  thing  the  doctor  said, 
"You  can  bring  on  yourself  any  disease,  if 
you  will  think  about  it  hard  enough,  and  believe 
absolutely  enough  that  you  have  it,  and  you 
can  die  at  any  time  almost  if  you  make  up 
your  mind  that  you  cannot  live  beyond  that 
day."  In  my  own  experience  I  have  met 
with  many  such  cases,  especially  as  to  dying 
within  a  certain  limit,  believed  in  by  patients. 
No  writer  that  I  know  of,  no  preacher  that  I 
have  heard,  and  no  scientist  with  whom  I  have 
conversed  has  ever  subjected  this  dictum  in 
the  ninetieth  Psalm  to  an  investigation  of 
King  David's  life,  and  of  how  far  his  poetry  was 
governed  by  his  own  experience.  King  David 
died  in  his  early  seventies.  From  any  stand 
point  of  modern  hygiene  and  pathology,  it  is  a 
marvel  that  he  lived  so  long.  He  was  a  great 
warrior;  he  conquered  all  the  surrounding 
nations  up  to  the  border  of  Egypt,  he  was  a 
great  poet,  but,  having  come  to  the  throne 
from  the  position  of  a  shepherd  boy  and  the 
hardships  of  exile  and  privation,  he  denied 
[169] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

himself  nothing  which  unlimited  power  and 
wealth  could  give.  His  principal  weakness  was 
the  fair  sex,  and  undesirable  husbands  with 
desirable  wives  were  placed  in  the  forefront 
of  the  fiercest  battle,  and  widowhood  and  her 
capture  soon  followed.  When  he  was  old  the 
doctors  found  him  with  weakened  mind  and 
anaemic  body.  He  suffered  from  perpetual 
chills  with  poverty  of  blood.  Royal  doctors 
could  think  of  only  one  remedy,  and  that  was 
suggested  by  the  King's  life,  physical  contact 
with  a  young,  healthy  and  attractive  girl, 
but  it  is  evident  from  the  story  as  told  in  the 
book  of  " Kings"  that  the  remedy  was  a 
failure,  and  history  and  the  records  of  the  pro 
fession  do  not  mention  that  it  has  ever  been 
repeated. 

My  grandfather  died  at  seventy-six,  but 
between  that  age  and  seventy  rarely  left  his 
farm.  One  of  my  great-grandfathers,  whose 
environment  had  been  extended  by  his  having 
been  a  Senator  and  Judge,  spent  between 
seventy-five  and  eighty  in  his  library  crippled 
with  gout,  and  writing  letters  to  one  of  his 
sons-in-law,  a  distinguished  lawyer,  upon  the 
ruin  of  his  country,  which  he  could  not,  happily, 
live  to  see.  To  his  mind  that  ruin  was  to  come 
about  because  Thomas  Jefferson  had  been 
elected  President  of  the  United  States.  The  old 
gentleman  believed,  as  did  those  who  opposed 
Jefferson  at  that  time,  that  this  eminent 
[1701 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

Virginian  Statesman,  through  the  influence  of 
his  contact  with  the  French  Revolution,  was 
an  atheist  in  religion  and  an  anarchist  in 
politics.  It  would  not  be  possible  now  to  make 
the  most  hidebound  partisan,  who  had  passed 
the  threescore  and  ten  limit,  believe  such  things 
of  any  man  who  had  reached  the  Presidency. 

There  were  three  very  remarkable  men  in  the 
Senate  while  I  was  a  member.  Senator  Hoar 
of  Massachusetts,  Morgan  of  Alabama  and 
Pettus  of  Alabama.  They  were  all  approaching 
or  had  passed  eighty.  Their  intellectual  vigor, 
their  grasp  of  the  questions  of  the  hour,  their 
vigor  and  alertness  in  debate  made  them  easily 
the  leaders  of  the  Senate.  I  knew  them  in 
timately  and  studied  them  with  the  greatest 
interest.  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  their 
healthful  longevity  was  due  entirely  to  an  un 
flagging  zeal  in  their  work.  The  high  respon 
sibility  of  the  government  of  a  great  country, 
which  was  in  part  theirs,  was  fully  realized  and 
lived  up  to. 

I  never  met  but  one  centenarian.  I  happened 
to  be  in  Paris  when  France  and  the  City  of 
Paris  were  both  celebrating  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  a  great  chemist,  Chevreul. 
Chevreul  had  entered  the  service  of  the  Gobelin 
tapestry  as  a  chemist  at  eighteen.  His  father 
was  an  officer  of  the  state  industry.  He  became 
famous  as  a  chemist  and  was  elected  one  of  the 
forty  immortals  of  the  Academy.  He  invented 
[1711 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

a  dye  for  silk  which  gave  France,  for  a  long 
period,  the  monopoly  of  its  manufacture  and 
sale.  He  also  discovered  margarine  and  stear- 
ine,  which  resulted  in  vast  industries.  On  the 
night  preceding  his  centenary  he  was  given  a 
gala  performance  at  the  Grand  Opera.  All 
the  great  artists  of  Paris,  both  of  the  lyric 
and  dramatic  stage,  played  some  part  during 
the  evening.  At  the  last  the  curtain  rose 
upon  a  statue  of  heroic  size  of  the  guest,  and 
angels  descended  from  the  wings  and  placed 
crowns  upon  his  head,  with  the  orchestra 
and  military  bands  playing  the  national  anthem, 
and  the  crowd  went  wild  with  cheering.  Then 
the  most  famous  actor  pronounced  an  oration, 
Chevreul  standing  in  his  box.  When  I  left  my 
seat  it  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The 
next  day  he  reviewed  the  garrison  of  Paris, 
some  thirty  thousand  men,  which  paraded  in 
his  honor,  and  he  read  a  paper  upon  the 
progress  of  chemistry  during  his  career  before 
the  Academy.  That  evening  he  was  given  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  magnificent  banquets 
ever  had  in  Paris,  and  he  made  a  speech.  I  sat 
opposite  him  at  the  table  and  so  had  an 
opportunity  to  ask  him  to  what  he  ascribed 
his  great  age  with  unimpaired  mental  and 
physical  vigor.  He  said,  "To  the  fact  that  I 
secured  a  life  position  with  the  government 
when  I  was  eighteen,  that,  with  promotions 
and  increases  in  salary,  I  have  been  entirely 
[172] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

satisfied  with  my  lot.  I  delight  in  my  pro 
fession,  its  opportunities  and  discoveries  as 
a  chemist.  I  have  never  indulged,  or  been 
tempted  to  indulge  in  any  excesses  of  any  kind. 
I  have  never  used  tobacco  or  alcohol. " 

"Well,"  I  said,  "what  have  you  drunk," 
and  he  answered,  "the  waters  of  the  Seine." 
One  incident  of  the  dinner  was  interesting  and 
amusing.  There  was  an  old  gentleman,  who 
sat  beside  him,  who  was  constantly  rising  with 
a  full  glass  of  wine  and  pledging  friends  and 
notables  right  and  left.  The  glass  was  empty 
when  he  sat  down.  Chevreul  frequently 
repressed  him,  trying  to  prevent  his  rising  and 
to  curb  his  hilarity.  I  said  to  the  official  who 
accompanied  me,  "Who  is  this  man  in  whom 
the  old  gentleman  seems  to  take  such  a  deep 
interest?"  The  official  answered,  "It  is  his 
son.  He  has  been  anxious  about  him  all  his 
life,  especially  on  occasions  like  this."  I  said, 
"How  old  is  the  boy?'7  The  answer  was, 
"Seventy-six."  Now  the  waters  of  the  Seine, 
which  Chevreul  said  had  been  his  only  beverage, 
are  anything  but  pure.  Chevreul  nearly  died 
because,  at  his  advanced  age,  his  vitality  could 
not  recuperate  from  the  strain  to  which  he 
was  subjected  by  the  extraordinary  efforts  to 
do  him  prolonged  and  continued  honors. 

There  was  in  Paris  at  the  same  time  a  soldier 
of  Napoleon's  old  guard,  who  had  been  through 
all  the  great  Conqueror's  campaigns.  He  was 

[1731 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

three  years  older  than  Chevreul  and  earning  a 
precarious  living  as  messenger.  He  fell  down 
stairs  a  short  time  afterwards  and  broke  his 
neck.  Inquiry  developed  that  he  had  gone  to 
bed  drunk  every  night  for  sixty  years  and  on 
this  evening  had  overindulged.  My  pro 
hibitionist  friends  say,  "This  proves  nothing, 
because  if  Chevreul  had  led  that  sort  of  life, 
he  would  have  died  at  fifty,  and  if  the  old 
soldier  had  lived  the  life  of  Chevreul,  he  would 
have  passed  one  hundred  and  fifty." 

My  experience  and  observations  teach  me 
that  the  condition  of  the  mind  is  the  con 
trolling  factor  in  the  health  of  the  body.  The 
person  who  is  anxious  and  absorbed  at  his 
meals  does  not  get  proper  nourishment,  the 
food  fails  to  assimilate,  the  digestive  apparatus 
is  always  out  of  working  order.  The  man  who 
carries  his  business  and  cares  to  church,  the 
opera  or  the  theatre  and  keeps  working  at  his 
problems,  had  better  stay  at  home.  He  simply 
adds  to  his  fatigue.  Enforced  sport  or  exercise 
of  any  kind,  with  the  idea  that  it  is  recreation, 
tires  both  body  and  mind  without  any  recupera 
tive  value  to  either. 

The  greatest  possible  mistake  a  man  can  make 
is  to  retire  from  business  to  enjoy  life.  I 
have  known  great  numbers  of  such  men,  they 
generally  believe  that  the  country,  especially 
the  old  farm,  or  the  village  where  they  were 
born  and  passed  their  boyhood  days,  will 

[1741 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

give  them  health  and  longevity.  The  first 
year,  while  building,  planning  and  repairing, 
goes  off  very  well;  the  second  year  they  miss 
then1  former  busy  days  and  become  irritable; 
the  third  year  they  begin  to  study  aches  and 
pains  and  imagine  them,  become  hypochondriacal 
and  take  to  patent  medicines,  and  soon  after 
their  names  appear  at  the  head  of  a  longer  or 
shorter  obituary  in  the  daily  papers,  and  their 
heirs  enjoy  then-  estates.  Now  the  trouble  with 
those  men  is,  either  that  they  did  not  continue 
in  their  business  and  vocation  and  find  relief 
in  recreation,  or  rather  in  some  congenial  side 
pursuit,  and  this  brings  me  to  a  recollection  of 
the  old  men  whom  I  have  known  who  have 
done  just  this. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  recreation  and  relief  of 
the  tired  man  was  after  business  hours  to  drive 
fast  trotting  horses.  This  continued  almost 
until  the  automobile  appeared.  Near  every 
city  was  a  track,  and  on  all  the  highways  were 
roadhouses  for  the  special  accommodation  of 
these  sports.  This  sport  admirably  accom 
plished  the  purpose,  because  the  driving  of  a 
thoroughbred  is  an  absorbing  occupation.  I 
have  known  men  who  were  eminently  success 
ful  in  their  profession,  or  who  had  accumulated 
large  fortunes  in  their  business  or  enterprises, 
who  cared  more  for  the  applause  of  tbeir 
fellow  horsemen,  sitting  on  the  piazza  of  the 
roadhouse  and  seeing  them  driving  by,  and  then 

[1751 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

praising  their  driving  and  their  trotter,  than 
they  did  for  any  successes  which  they  had  in 
their  vocations.  I  have  never  known  anything 
equal  to  the  exquisite  enjoyment  of  one  of  these 
elderly  horsemen,  as  I  have  sat  beside  him, 
behind  his  pacers,  while  he  with  great  skill  got 
out  of  them  all  the  speed  there  was,  and  at  the 
same  time,  like  an  artist  viewing  his  master 
piece,  revelled  in  the  superb  display  of  muscle 
and  spirit  of  his  favorites.  The  automobile 
abolished  the  trotting  track,  and  the  roadhouse 
became  a  ruin.  Then  followed  golf,  which  is 
still  a  national  fad.  Twenty  years  ago  there 
was  scarcely  a  golf  course  or  a  golfer  in  the 
country.  To-day  the  course  and  the  clubhouses 
are  everywhere  in  evidence.  I  do  not  think 
everybody  is  fitted  for  golf  any  more  than  in 
the  old  days  everybody  had  horse-sense.  Bil 
liards  have  had  their  attraction  and  have  still, 
but  they  are  largely  enjoyed  at  the  club  with 
too  much  of  cigars  and  too  many  cocktails. 

Martin  Luther,  who  talked  well  about  many 
things  besides  theology,  gave  to  the  world 
two  wise  sayings  in  regard  to  health  and 
longevity.  One  was,  "When  I  rest  I  rust," 
and  the  other  was: 

"Who  drinks  without  thirst,  and  eats  without  hunger, 
Dies  so  much  the  younger." 

The  difficulty  with  these  methods  of  changing 
the  switch,  as  it  were,  or  in  other  words, 

[176] 


THE    ART    OF    GROWING    OLDER 

relieving  the  mind  by  some  other  occupation  is 
that,  with  increasing  age  they  cannot  be 
followed.  When  the  horseman  could  no  longer 
drive  himself,  but  must  have  some  one  drive 
for  him,  his  doctor  and  his  family  both  knew  that 
death  was  not  very  far  distant.  The  same 
way,  there  is  a  period  where  the  golfer  can  no 
longer  swing  his  club  or  survive  the  inclemency 
of  all  weathers,  so  it  becomes  necessary  to 
discover  some  other  method,  and  this  is  not 
difficult.  I  think  it  can  be  found  in  service; 
service  to  your  country,  your  state,  your 
community,  your  church,  your  neighbors.  This 
does  not  mean  becoming  a  noisy  reformer  or 
hunting  headlines  in  the  newspapers.  Church 
settlement  and  philanthropic  work  of  all  kind 
have  their  attractions,  but  they  do  not  appeal 
to  everybody.  There  is  only  one  service  which 
does  and  that  is  private  interest  in  public  life. 
Nearly  seventeen  millions  of  citizens  cast  their 
votes  in  the  recent  election.  There  were 
seventeen  millions  of  women  just  as  much 
interested,  and  all  youth  also  from  very  early 
years  up  to  the  eve  of  maturity.  This  interest 
was  intense  while  it  lasted.  It  began  with  the 
nominations  by  the  National  Conventions, 
was  apathetic  during  the  summer  and  fall 
until  about  four  weeks  before  election,  then 
everybody  was  willing  and  anxious  to  advocate 
his  belief,  to  praise  his  candidate,  to  attend 
political  meetings,  to  march  and  to  shout, 
[1771 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

"Save  the  country!"  The  salvation  of  the 
country  under  our  form  of  government  is 
absolutely  in  the  hands  of  its  citizens.  If  it 
is  corrupt  or  extravagant  they  are  to  blame; 
if  it  is  inefficient  to  meet  what  is  required  or 
expected  by  the  most  enlightened  sentiment 
and  by  the  opinion  of  the  world,  the  fault 
lies  not  with  the  law  makers  but  the  elec 
torate.  A  great  city  will  be  notoriously,  badly 
and  corruptly  governed  with  everybody  com 
plaining  and  few  doing  anything.  Then  will 
come,  under  some  energetic  leadership,  a 
concentration  of  public  opinion  which  drives 
out  the  rascals  and  puts  in  honest  men,  but 
before  the  reform  administration  has  been  long 
enough  in  power  to  correct  the  evils  of  the  past 
and  mature  a  program  for  the  future,  interest 
dies  out  and  the  old  order  returns.  It  is  the 
eternal  lesson  of  preparedness.  One  veteran 
is  worth  a  company  of  recruits.  Eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty.  Few  people 
appreciate  the  fascination  of  politics  in  the 
best  sense.  Lawyers  do  largely,  because  they 
see  rewards  for  their  profession.  Judicial  offices 
are  great  prizes,  and  activity  in  public  life 
enlarges  acquaintance  and  brings  clients.  There 
is  general  abuse  of  party  organization  and 
party  leaders  or  bosses,  but  the  prizes  are  so 
great  in  government,  national,  state,  municipal 
and  town,  that  there  will  be  a  section  of  the 
public  that  they  will  always  attract.  This 

[178] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

section  of  the  public  become  experts  and 
professionals.  They  may  occasionally  drop  into 
obscurity,  but  never  into  oblivion.  Their 
emergency  is  as  certain  and  as  irresistible  as 
the  locust.  We  rarely  consider  that  prac 
tically  all  we  care  for,  and  all  our  oppor 
tunities  for  enjoyment  or  for  success  in  life, 
are  dependent  upon  the  government  whic 
we  make  and  can  control. 

The  doctor  is  peculiarly  fitted  for  this 
public  service.  He  also  needs  it  as  a  relief 
from  the  absorption  of  his  profession.  His 
training  and  practice  educate  him  in  induc 
tive  reasoning,  in  estimating  values,  in  knowl 
edge  of  mankind  and  for  service  in  the  large 
amount  of  charitable  work  which  he  does. 
The  one  member  of  his  constituency  which  the 
legislator  fears  is  the  country  doctor.  The 
physician  is  much  more  than  a  medical  adviser, 
he  is  the  confidant  of  the  family.  His  opinion 
of  men  and  measures  is  the  more  powerful 
from  the  absence  of  personal  motive.  The 
doctor  can,  himself,  and  he  can  inspire  others 
to  take  an  interest  in  the  character  of  the 
candidates  and  in  the  operations  of  municipal 
bodies  and  state  and  national  officers.  He  can 
easily  learn  the  sources  of  political  power. 
They  begin  in  the  caucus,  they  continue  in  the 
convention  and  are  decided  at  the  poles.  The 
primary,  instead  of  diminishing  the  power  of 
the  boss  and  the  politician  has  enormously 
[  1791 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

increased  it.  In  nearly  every  state,  after  the 
novelty  of  the  primary  has  passed  away,  the 
indifference  of  the  public  and  the  keen  trained 
ability  of  the  politician  enable  him  to  control 
the  machinery  of  the  primary  and  decide  its 
action.  So  long  as  life  lasts,  and  no  matter 
how  great  the  age  or  impairment  of  physical 
activity,  public  life  for  a  private  citizen  can 
still  have  absorbing  attraction. 

In  free  governments  there  must  be  parties. 
The  nearer  they  are  in  numbers  the  better  the 
government.  The  membership  of  a  party  is 
partly  temperamental  and  partly  psychological. 
There  will  always  be,  what  President  Wilson 
calls,  " forward  men."  They  accomplish  much 
that  is  needed  but  are  not  always  safe.  Their 
propositions  are  radical,  especially  in  econom 
ical,  industrial  and  social  legislation.  There 
are  other  men  who  are  satisfied  with  the 
existing  order.  They  are  comfortable  under 
it  and  do  not  want  it  disturbed,  and  especially 
do  not  want  themselves  disturbed.  They  are 
the  brakes  on  the  motor.  When  the  radicals 
have  gone  too  far,  there  are  enough  of  con 
servatives  among  them  to  use  more  caution, 
and  put  the  opposition  in  power.  Thus  the 
country  never  goes  headlong  over  the  precipice 
or  dies  of  dry  rot. 

The  study  of  the  origin  of  parties  in  our  own 
country,  and  the  lines  upon  which  they  have 
generally  divided  is  most  fascinating.  It  goes 
[180] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

down  to  the  very  roots  of  our  existence  and  the 
very  foundation,  if  I  may  change  the  simile. 
It  illustrates  again  the  continuing  power  of 
masterful  creative  genius  and  the  grip  of  a 
dead  hand  that  cannot  be  loosened. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  one  of  those  original 
geniuses  who  defy  analysis.  As  a  boy  he 
mastered  the  principles  of  government  and 
elucidated  them  with  such  clarity  as  to  capture 
the  minds  and  imagination  of  the  statesmen 
of  the  Revolution.  Thomas  Jefferson  had 
rare  gifts  and  acquirements,  and  a  wonderful 
and  intuitive  understanding  of  popular  im 
pulses.  Hamilton  believed  in  a  strong  central 
government  and  checks  upon  hasty  popular 
action.  Jefferson  had  been  in  close  contact 
with  the  French  Revolution  and  wanted  power 
and  authority  in  the  states  rather  than  in  the 
general  government  and  the  fewest  possible 
restrictions  on  the  immediate  action  of  the 
popular  will.  In  the  framing  of  our  Constitu 
tion  is  seen  the  results  of  the  influence  and 
teaching  of  these  two  antagonists  harmonized 
into  general  principles  by  the  overwhelming 
power  of  George  Washington.  Washington  was 
not  a  genius,  unless  common  sense  belongs  to 
that  category,  and  he  had  more  common  sense 
than  any  man  of  his  period  in  this  or  any  other 
country.  Soon  after  our  government  was 
started  under  this  Constitution,  John  Marshall 
was  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
[181] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Court.  He  remained  such  until  his  death, 
thirty-four  years  afterwards.  There  came 
before  the  court  almost  every  possible  question 
of  interpretation  as  to  the  power  of  the  general 
government  and  that  reserved  to  the  states. 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  deciding  these  ques 
tions  established  upon  impregnable  foundations 
the  power  of  the  general  government  to  enforce 
its  authority  and  perpetuate  its  existence. 
His  decisions  were  on  the  lines  of  Hamilton's 
ideas.  This  so  enraged  Mr.  Jefferson  that  in  a 
letter  to  President  Madison  he  said : 

"The  rancorous  hatred  which  Marshall  bears 
to  the  Government  of  his  country,  and  the 
cunning  sophistry  within  which  he  is  able  to 
enshroud  himself." 

Nothing  can  be  more  entrancing  than  the 
study  through  various  administrations,  many 
crises  and  vital  measures,  the  changes  of  public 
opinion,  and  political  action  upon  these  various 
questions  and  the  attitude  of  parties  upon 
them  to-day.  It  is  this  exhaustless  field 
which  I  commend,  not  only  to  you  but  to 
all  others,  as  to  activities  outside  of  one's 
vocation  which  are  necessary  for  health  and 
longevity. 

Many  of  you  have  said  to  me,  "Tell  us  some 
thing  about  yourself. "  So  far  as  I  can  judge, 
I  am  in  as  good  condition  on  the  eve  of  eighty- 
three  as  I  was  at  fifty.  On  this  very  question 
of  another  work  rather  than  play  for  recrea- 
[182] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

tion  I  have  had  this  experience.  There  could 
be  no  more  exacting  position  than  President  of 
a  great  railroad  company.  Between  the  public, 
the  patrons  of  the  railroad  and  its  employees, 
he  has  his  hands  full.  The  exactions  and 
demands  of  conflicting  municipal,  state  and 
governmental  authorities  are  no  small  part 
of  his  troubles.  Most  executives  retire  early 
or  die  before  their  time.  They  give  their  whole 
thought  and  mind  without  relief  to  their  duties 
and  the  strain  becomes  too  great.  I  early 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  insomnia  and 
nerve-racking  were  relieved  rather  by  change 
of  occupation  than  by  sport.  I  had  a  faculty 
for  easy  preparation  in  public  speaking  and 
received  innumerable  requests,  and  the  plat 
form  became  my  change  of  work.  I  found 
that  in  speaking  at  the  dinners  of  the  Trades 
Associations  who  had  their  annual  banquets 
in  New  York  several  times  a  week,  the  year 
round,  I  won  their  favor  and  added  to  the 
traffic  of  our  lines.  One  day  we  had  a  con 
ference  of  rival  interests  and  many  executives 
were  there  in  the  effort  to  secure  an  adjustment 
without  a  railroad  war.  For  the  purpose  we 
had  an  arbitrator.  After  a  most  exhausting 
day  in  the  battle  of  will  and  experience  for 
advantage,  I  arrived  home  " used-up,"  but 
after  a  half  hour's  sleep  I  awoke  refreshed  and 
consulting  my  diary  found  I  was  down  for  a 
speech  at  a  banquet  at  Delmonico's  that  night. 
[1831 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

I  arrived  late,  the  intervening  time  having 
been  devoted  to  preparation.  I  was  called 
early,  the  speech  attracted  attention  and 
occupied  a  column  in  the  morning's  papers.  I 
was  in  bed  at  eleven  o'clock  and  had  between 
seven  and  eight  hours  of  refreshing  slumber. 
On  arriving  at  our  meeting  place,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  railway  presidents,  at  that  time, 
took  me  one  side.  He  said,  "Chauncey,  by 
making  speeches  such  as  you  did  last  night, 
you  are  losing  the  confidence  of  the  people  in 
your  attention  to  your  business."  "Well,"  I 
said,  "my  dear  friend,  did  I  lose  anything  be 
fore  the  arbitrator  yesterday?"  He  said  very 
angrily,  "No,  you  gained  entirely  too  much." 
"Well,  I  said,  I  am  very  fresh  this  morning. 
What  did  you  do?"  He  said  he  was  so  ex 
hausted  that  he  went  to  Delmonico's  and 
ordered  the  best  dinner  he  could.  He  went  on 
to  say,  "A  friend  told  me  that  a  little  game 
was  on  upstairs,  and  in  a  close  room  filled  with 
tobacco  smoke  I  played  poker  until  two 
o'clock  and  drank  several  highballs.  The 
result  is,  I  think  we  had  better  postpone  this 
meeting  for  I  do  not  feel  like  doing  anything 
to-day."  I  said,  "My  dear  friend,  you  will 
get  credit  of  giving  your  whole  time  to  business, 
while  I  am  discredited  simply  because  I  am  in 
the  papers.  I  shall  keep  my  method  regardless 
of  consequences."  Although  younger  than 
myself  he  died  years  ago. 

[184] 


THE   ART   OF   GROWING   OLDER 

Collective  investigation  in  England  showed 
that  a  large  proportion  of  very  old  people  had 
always  been  early  risers.  The  greatest  mistake 
such  a  one  can  make  is  to  yield  to  the  usual 
desire  to  turn  over  and  remain  in  bed  longer 
when  his  hour  for  rising  in  the  morning  has 
come.  No  matter  what  keeps  one  up  the 
night  before,  arise  at  the  usual  hour.  Take 
a  nap  during  the  day,  its  recuperative  power 
and  efficiency  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  evening 
is  wonderful.  Above  all,  keep  your  mind 
serene.  You  never  saw  an  old  person  who 
had  been  choleric  all  his  life.  Regularity  in 
habits  is  the  key  note  of  healthy  living  and 
thinking  in  old  age. 

I  gave  up  tobacco  twenty-five  years  ago 
because  I  had  become  absolutely  dependent 
upon  it  and  after  nearly  a  year  of  agony  got 
over  insomnia  and  indigestion.  When  any 
appetite  becomes  injurious,  whether  alcohol, 
tobacco  or  drugs,  it  can  be  cured  by  will  power. 
The  joy  of  such  a  victory  compensates  for  every 
suffering.  Stable  health  and  the  consciousness 
of  added  years  of  vigor  make  each  year  one  of 
thanksgiving. 

With  an  inherited  tendency  for  worry,  and 
the  exaggeration  of  hard  luck  or  disappoint 
ments,  I  have  discovered  that  it  is  possible 
to  cultivate  optimism  and  hopefulness.  With 
out  practicing  the  insipidity  of  "Pollyanna" 
any  man  or  any  woman  can  dispel  care,  escape 

[185] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

morbidness,  have  faith  in  humanity,  love 
crowds,  do  little  kindnesses  as  a  habit,  have  an 
eye  for  a  pretty  girl,  but  tell  your  wife,  and  long 
for  the  prolongation  of  a  life  so  full  of  daily 
content  and  happiness. 


186 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Lotos  Club 
of  New  York  to  Mr.  Booth  Tarkington, 
November  25,  1916. 

Gentlemen: 

This  welcome  to-night,  for  one  of  the  most 
eminent  of  the  younger  generation  of  our  men 
of  letters,  is  full  of  reminiscence  of  the  authors 
who  have  honored  us  in  years  past.  I  recall 
two  occasions  of  marked  interest.  The  guest 
of  honor  was  Lord  Houghton,  known  before  he 
was  elevated  to  the  peerage  as  the  poet  Mock- 
ton  Milnes.  Lord  Houghton  had  the  habit, 
then  common  in  the  English  Parliament,  of 
interlarding  every  speech  with  quotations  from 
the  Latin  classics,  especially  from  Horace. 
He  had  an  idea  that  our  membership  was  made 
up  of  men  who  possessed  the  American  equiva 
lent  of  the  training  of  Oxford,  or  Cambridge 
University.  The  result  was  that  Latin  sentences 
illuminated  his  address.  We  rose  to  the  occa 
sion  by  vigorously  applauding  and  showing 
more  vociferous  appreciation  of  his  Latin 
than  of  his  English.  Anyhow,  we  knew  what 
he  ought  to  have  said.  The  next  occasion, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  hi  our 
history,  had  a  rather  tragical  conclusion.  It 
was  in  honor  of  Canon  Kingsley.  His  novels 
were  household  words  and  especially  his 
[187] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

"Hypatia"  and  his  " Westward  Ho."  To 
show  a  special  appreciation  of  his  clerical 
position,  the  late  Bishop  Potter  made  the 
principal  address.  The  Bishop  was  noted, 
during  his  whole  career,  not  only  as  a  fine 
preacher  and  a  man  of  letters,  but  one  of  the 
most  courtly  and  tactful  of  gentlemen.  On 
this  occasion  he  made  the  only  break  in  his 
life.  It  came  in  an  address  which  was  most 
complimentary  and  dispersed  with  delightful 
humor.  The  Canon  was  of  rubicund  counte 
nance  and  the  reddest  and  largest  nose  I  ever 
saw.  The  Bishop's  allusion  to  this  feature  as 
a  headlight  which  had  illumined  literature  and 
led  it  to  the  most  brilliant  heights  of  this,  or 
any  age,  was  deeply  resented  by  the  Canon 
and  forgiveness  denied. 

Such  an  evening  as  this  recalls  to  mind  in 
rapid  succession  the  brief  story  of  American 
literature.  There  is  little  in  the  Colonial 
period;  in  the  next  era,  the  intellectual  world 
was  dominated  by  the  Clergy.  They  were 
great  theologians,  and  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards's 
lurid  descriptions,  and  powerful  presentation  of 
the  fate  of  the  wicked,  frightened  the  whole 
nation.  We  must  remember  that  one  of  the 
reasons  for  the  monopoly  during  that  time  of 
this  strictly  doctrinal  and  gloomy  literature, 
is  the  fact  that,  for  the  first  hundred  years, 
there  were  no  lawyers  in  New  England.  Our 
next  era  was  literature  in  oratory.  People 

[  1881 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    BOOTH   TARKINGTON 

cared  little  for  books,  but  went  wild  over  the 
orations  of  Daniel  Webster,  Henry  Clay,  John 
C.  Calhoun,  and  Edward  Everett.  Webster's 
orations,  in  their  literary  finish  and  perfection, 
were  literature  and  survive.  The  others  do  not 
live  because  with  the  exception  of  Everett, 
they  exhausted  themselves  upon  transient  politi 
cal  issues.  Then  came  a  brilliant  age;  it  was 
composed  mainly  of  the  men  of  genius  who 
lunched  once  a  week  at  the  Parker  House  in 
Boston.  Among  them  were  Longfellow,  Emer 
son,  Hawthorne,  Theodore  Parker,  Dr. 
Channing  and  others.  They  placed  American 
literature  upon  the  map  of  the  world.  In  a 
volume  of  old  letters  recently  published  is  one 
from  Sir  Walter  Scott  to  a  New  York  friend. 
Sir  Walter  says  that  he  has  just  read  a  book  by 
one  Washington  Irving,  which  has  the  grace 
and  manner  of  Addison  and  Sterne,  and  predicts 
a  future  for  the  author.  Thus,  for  the  first  time, 
was  answered  the  well-known  question  of  that 
period,  "Who  reads  an  American  book?"  Irving 
became,  and  still  holds  the  position  of 
Father  of  American  literature.  There  is  a 
letter  also  of  Washington  Irving' s,  which  is  the 
first  indication  on  our  side  of  the  ocean  of  a 
life  devoted  to  letters.  He  says,  "  I'd  rather  be  a 
successful  author  and  starve  in  a  garret,  than 
have  all  the  money  of  John  Jacob  Astor." 
He  referred  to  the  original  Astor,  who  was  then 
the  richest  man  in  the  United  States. 

[189] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

We  live  in  a  revolutionary  period,  it  is  one  of 
startling  changes  and  wonderful  contrasts.    We 
have   just   gone   through   a   general   election, 
New  York  has  always  been  a  pivotal  State, 
it  became  a  maxim  that  as  goes  New  York,  so 
goes  the  Union.     But  this  election  has  broken 
the  tradition,  the  flag  of  victory  goes  to  Cali 
fornia.     So  in  literature  the  center  of  original 
thought  and  ideas  is  transferred  from  Boston 
to    Indianapolis.     By    the    way,    we    are    all 
philosophers  now  and  have  no  politics,  so  what 
did  this  election  decide?     I  think  practically 
nothing.     The  reason  is  deep  in  the  undeveloped 
results  of  this  world  tragedy.     We  are  not  in  it, 
but  we  are  of  it.     As  a  people  we  are  groping 
to  find  our  place,  or  what  place  will  be  forced 
upon  us.     The  Atlantic  States,  like  New  York, 
Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania  and  Maine,  fear 
ing  future  possibilities,  want  army  and  navy 
preparedness  to  meet  them;   the  Middle  West, 
composed  of  a  people  just  as  brave,  but  having 
no  fear  of  invasion,  have  a  greater  fear  of  the 
possibilities  of  war,     They  are  not  at  all  sure 
but  what  if   New  York  as  they  conceive  it  to 
be  was  wiped  off  the  map,  even  by  a  hostile 
fleet,  it  would  be  a  blessing  to  the  country. 
Hence  you  see  rock-ribbed  Republican  Kansas 
going  Democratic,  Republican  Minnesota  saved 
by  only  a  few  votes,   and   California  giving 
twelve    thousand    majority    for    Wilson    and 
three  hundred  thousand  majority  to  Governor 

f  1901 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    BOOTH   TARKINGTON 

Johnson,  the  Republican  candidate  for  United 
States  Senator.  This  thought  lands  us  square 
into  the  Middle  West,  whose  brilliant  repre 
sentative  is  our  guest  to-night.  Indiana  was 
discovered  by  La  Salle,  the  famous  Jesuit 
explorer.  It  was  for  a  hundred  years  part  of 
France.  Under  the  Mendel  theory,  the  strong 
est  element  in  an  ancestor  may  skip  several 
generations  and  then  break  out,  so  now  we 
have  the  vivacity,  variety,  and  interpretation, 
which  is  French  genius,  appearing  in  Booth 
Tarkington,  Whitcomb  Riley  and  George  Ade 
of  Indianapolis.  Irving  said,  in  one  of  his 
works,  that  the  Middle  West  would  in  the 
future  form  a  lawless  interval  between  the  abodes 
of  civilized  man  like  the  waters  of  the  ocean, 
or  the  deserts  of  Arabia.  He  was  familiar 
with  the  civilization  and  culture  of  the  Atlantic 
East,  and  of  the  possibilities  of  the  Pacific, 
but  he  did  not  grasp  that  a  race,  strong,  vigor 
ous,  independent  and  ruthless  of  traditions 
would  make  the  boundless  prairies  of  the 
Middle  West  the  dominant  factor  in  the 
politics  and  literature  of  the  United  States. 
Like  the  Bowery,  in  the  topical  song,  "They 
say  such  things  and  they  do  such  things," 
and  are  original.  When  Whitcomb  Riley's  birth 
day  arrived,  the  whole  State  turned  out.  The 
Governor  came  with  his  staff  to  Riley's  home, 
the  courts  adjourned,  the  factories  closed,  the 
children  flocked,  Vice-President  Fairbanks  illu- 
[1911 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

mined  the  occasion  with  his  most  genial  smile, 
Vice-President  Marshall  wore  a  dress  suit  and 
Senator  Beveridge  made  a  speech.  No  other 
state  ever  so  expressed  its  love  and  admiration 
for  its  poet;  no  such  demonstration  ever  came 
to  Lowell  or  Holmes  or  Longfellow.  Such 
appreciation  is  bound  to  produce  more  poets, 
and  inspire  incipient  genius  to  wonderful 
achievements. 

While  I  was  in  the  Senate  an  appeal  was 
made  to  me  to  assist  in  securing  charter  for  an 
American  Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters  whose 
membership  should  rival  the  immortals  of  the 
famous  French  Academy.  The  Middle  West 
ridiculed  and  opposed  it.  They  said  it  created 
a  chartered  aristocracy.  They  had  no  preju 
dices  against  cowboys  becoming  multi-million 
aires  or  telegraph  operators,  railroad  presidents 
or  porters  in  the  stores,  merchant  princes,  for 
those  opportunities  were  open  to  all  men. 
But  they  would  not  stand  for  the  United  States 
putting  its  great  seal  of  recognition  upon  certain 
citizens  as  superior  beings  and  give  them  a 
power  to  say  who  for  all  time  should  be  their 
associates.  The  bill  became  a  law,  and  the 
Academy  has  had  its  first  meeting.  It  finds 
that  we  have  no  standards,  our  poetry  is  not 
inspired  by  the  Muses,  and  our  novels  lack 
circulation  of  the  blood  and  a  nervous  system 
to  sustain  their  muscular  vigor.  But  the 
Middle  West  will  go  right  on  with  new  standards 
[1921 


TRIBUTE   TO   MR.    BOOTH   TARKINGTON 

and  fresher  ones  like  James  Abbott  McNeill 
Whistler  and  Walt  Whitman  who  were  more 
of  the  unbridled  West  than  the  corraled  East. 

At  this  time,  when  there  are  no  great  issues 
to  divide  parties  or  arouse  antagonistic  opin 
ions,  I  discover  by  accident  that  the  public 
must  always  have  an  issue  of  some  kind.  We 
once  had  a  bloody  riot  here  in  New  York  to 
determine  whether  Forrest  or  Macready  was  the 
greatest  tragedian.  I  recently  had  occasion  in 
an  address  to  the  Academy  of  Medicine  on 
longevity  to  allude  to  the  discrepancy  between 
King  David's  advice  and  his  life.  King  David 
lived  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago,  but  his 
remark,  made  before  a  body  of  scientists, 
brought  him  out  into  the  lime-light  and  demon 
strated  that  he  had  a  multitude  of  militant 
defenders.  The  next  time  I  have  to  illustrate 
a  point  or  emphasize  a  thought,  I  shall  try 
Rameses  or  Nebuchadnezzar.  I  know  Nebu 
chadnezzar  is  safe  because  during  the  reception 
a  young  author  said  to  me,  "  What  will  you  talk 
about?  "  I  answered,  "  Nebuchadnezzar. "  He 
said,  "What  is  that?" 

And  now,  my  friends,  let  us  rejoice  that  we 
have  men  of  letters,  who  in  books,  in  plays  and 
in  journalism,  can  give  us  the  characteristics, 
the  idylls  and  the  aspirations  of  American  life. 
Let  us  unite  with  Indiana  in  honoring  the  author 
of  so  many  admirable  novels  and  excellent 
plays.  I  went  the  other  night  to  witness 
[193] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

"Mr.  Antonio,"  written  by  Booth  Tarking- 
ton.  In  the  mass  of  folly,  useful  only  for  a 
laugh,  of  which  we  have  so  much,  it  was  a 
delight  to  sit  under  the  charm  of  a  portrayal  of 
character  and  of  life,  which  carried  one  back  to 
the  comedies  of  classic  English.  Our  friend 
and  guest  has  not  yet  reached  his  prime,  he  is 
still  under  fifty,  may  he  live  to  delight  his 
countrymen  by  his  contributions  to  the  stage, 
and  to  general  literature  for  generations  to 
come. 


[  194 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  Mr.  Frank 
Munsey  to  Ambassador  James  W.  Gerard, 
Ritz-Carlton,  New  York,  December,  1916. 

Mr.  Munsey,  Mr.  Ambassador  and  Friends: 

We  are  all  grateful  to  Mr.  Munsey  for  so 
graciously  and  hospitably  giving  us  the  oppor 
tunity  to  meet  and  greet  our  old  friend, 
Ambassador  Gerard,  on  his  brief  vacation  from 
Germany. 

For  many  years  the  American  people  have 
thought  little  of  the  diplomatic  service;  one 
President  of  the  United  States  told  me  very 
emphatically  that  its  usefulness  had  ceased, 
because  the  business  between  the  United 
States  and  foreign  governments  could  be  as 
well  transacted  by  cable  between  our  State 
Department  and  their  Chancelleries,  but  he 
said,  "I  think  it  wise  to  continue  the  practice 
for  this  reason,  every  other  nation  can  decorate 
deserving  citizens,  in  monarchial  countries  they 
have  titles,  in  France  they  have  the  legion  of 
honor.  We  have  nothing,  but  these  diplomatic 
appointments  take  their  places.  The  reason 
why  I  am  changing  our  diplomatic  service, 
almost  entirely,  is  to  fill  the  vacancies  in  order 
to  decorate  distinguished  and  deserving  citi 
zens.  " 

The  present  world  war  has  demonstrated 
I"  1951 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

that  he  was  wrong.  Our  neutrality  is  largely 
dependent  upon  daily  communication  of  our 
Ambassador  or  Minister  with  the  foreign 
ministers,  Sovereigns  or  Presidents,  of  the 
countries  to  which  he  is  accredited  and  the  tact, 
skill  and  wisdom  with  which  he  performs  his 
duty.  The  services  of  our  Ambassadors,  espe 
cially  at  London,  Paris  and  Berlin,  have  been  of 
incalculable  value  to  our  people  abroad,  to  our 
commercial  relations  and  to  our  friendly  inter 
course  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
Certainly  the  position  of  the  Ambassador  to 
Germany  has  been  very  difficult.  He  has  had 
upon  him,  not  only  the  eyes  of  his  government 
and  our  people  generally,  but  special  scrutiny 
from  the  large  number  of  very  intelligent, 
prosperous  and  clear-sighted  American  citizens 
of  German  birth  or  ancestry.  He  has  had  also 
the  very  delicate  task  of  looking  after  the 
interests  of  Great  Britain,  which,  according  to 
the  custom  in  war  times,  the  belligerent  nation 
always  requests  the  representative  of  a  friendly 
power  to  attend  to.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  it 
is  a  high  and  deserved  tribute  that,  during  these 
critical  two  and  a  half  years,  he  has  retained  the 
confidence  of  his  own  government,  maintained 
personal  and  cordial  relations  with  the  Kaiser 
and  his  Cabinet,  and  vindicated  the  rights  and 
interests  of  our  people. 

We  have  all  listened  with  pleasure  to  the 
illuminating  speech  which  he  has  just  delivered. 
[  1961 


TRIBUTE   TO   AMBASSADOR   GERARD 

A  diplomat  speaks  under  difficulties.  For  his 
audience,  he  must  say  much;  on  account  of 
his  position,  he  can  say  nothing.  I  remember 
when  a  boy  in  the  country  one  of  the  pleasures 
of  life,  because  of  its  thrills  and  dangers,  was 
to  skate  on  thin  ice.  This  elastic  covering  of 
the  water  would  rise  in  a  wave  before  the 
skater,  and  the  sensation  was  exhilarating 
unless  the  crest  of  the  wave  broke  and  then  the 
skater  went  under  the  ice  and  generally  con 
tinued  his  journey  to  some  destination  in 
another  world.  Our  friend  this  evening  has  not 
broken  the  ice.  At  the  same  tune  he  has  given 
us  much  valuable  information  in  regard  to 
conditions  abroad.  There  was  one  part  of  his 
speech  which  especially  appealed  to  me  as  a 
veteran  protectionist.  He  is  a  life-long  Demo 
crat  and  free-trader.  I  have  heard  him  often, 
with  great  skill  and  eloquence,  denounce  pro 
tection  as  the  sum  of  all  robberies.  But  then 
his  father  and  grandfather,  whom  I  had  the 
privilege  of  knowing  very  well,  were  also  free- 
trade  Democrats.  It  is  difficult  to  escape  from 
the  clutch  of  heredity.  His  picture  to-night  was 
a  vivid  one  of  the  danger  of  our  markets  being 
flooded  when  the  war  is  over,  by  the  products  of 
German  industries  equal  to  our  own,  but 
made  at  much  lower  wages.  Of  course  the 
only  way  to  protect  ourselves  from  being  sub 
merged,  our  factories  closed  and  our  working 
men  thrown  out  of  employment,  is  by  raising 
[197] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

a  barrier  in  the  shape  of  an  old-fashioned 
protective  tariff  against  the  dumping  process. 
I  am  sure,  his  excellency,  the  Ambassador,  will 
forgive  me  for  expressing  my  gratification  for 
this  high  official  testimony  to  the  soundness  of 
my  opinions  on  this  economic  question. 

Ever  since  President  McKinley's  days  I  have 
taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  diplomatic  relations 
between  Germany  and  the  United  States,  for 
he  very  kindly  tendered  me  the  Ambassador 
ship  which  I  had  to  decline,  but  I  have  another 
very  charming  recollection  of  a  brief  interview 
with  the  old  Emperor.  I  was  at  Salzburg 
in  Austria.  It  is  principally  noted  as  the 
place  where  a  citizen  got  rid  of  seven  wives  by 
tying  them  to  a  bed  post  and  then  tickling 
their  feet  until  they  died  of  suffocation  from 
hysterical  laughter.  His  eighth  wife  broke  the 
cord  and  exposed  him.  He  was  hung  and  in  the 
churchyard  he  lies  beside  his  seven  victims. 
The  Emperor  arrived  one  evening,  accompanied 
by  his  grandson,  the  present  Emperor,  and  a 
large  staff.  He  was  past  ninety  and  assisted 
into  the  hotel,  but  when  he  saw  the  crowd  he 
straightened  up,  threw  off  his  attendants  and 
marched  up  the  stairs  behind  his  iron  camp 
bedstead,  like  a  grenadier.  He  was  ill  for 
several  days.  There  were  three  of  us  Americans 
in  the  hotel,  we  sent  him  a  basket  of  flowers 
with  an  address  which  I  wrote.  When  he  was 
to  leave,  an  officer  said  to  me,  "The  Emperor  is 
[198] 


TRIBUTE    TO    AMBASSADOR    GERARD 

very  much  pleased  with  your  address  and  the 
flowers.  There  is  a  large  crowd  of  English 
standing  near  the  stairs  to  present  him  with  an 
address  and  bouquets.  He  does  not  want 
either,  but  wishes  to  show  his  appreciation  of 
you  Americans,  so  if  you  will  be  at  the  foot  of 
the  elevator,  he  will  see  you  there."  He  was 
very  gracious  and  so  was  his  grandson.  He 
had  left  the  hotel  and  been  gone  for  some 
time  before  the  hundred  or  more  English, 
with  their  bouquets,  discovered  how  sadly  they 
had  been  left.  I  was  very  much  impressed 
with  the  grandson,  even  in  that  brief  inter 
view,  but  thought  it  would  be  a  long  time  before 
he  would  come  to  the  throne,  but  within  a  year 
his  grandfather  died,  his  father  succeeded, 
lived  but  a  few  months  and  died,  and  he 
became  Emperor.  I  am  glad  here  to  pay  him 
this  tribute  which  he  eminently  deserves,  and 
that  is  that  no  German  sovereign  has  done  so 
much  to  expand  the  commerce,  to  develop  the 
industries  and  to  enlarge  the  mercantile  marine 
of  his  country,  and  to  increase  its  prestige  and 
power. 

I  feel  a  sort  of  fatherly  interest  in  our  dis 
tinguished  guest.  I  think  I  am  the  dean  of  the 
American  diplomatic  corps.  Just  fifty  years 
ago  I  was  appointed  and  confirmed  as  United 
States  Minister  to  Japan.  There  is  no  one 
living  who  was  in  the  diplomatic  service  as  a 
minister  a  half  century  ago.  I  know  of  nothing, 

[199] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

in  the  way  of  historical  contrast  and  national 
development,  equal  to  the  progress  of  Japan, 
since  my  appointment.  Then  it  required  six 
months  to  make  the  passage  and  an  equal 
time  for  the  mails.  Not  long  ago  Mr.  Edison 
sat  at  one  desk  and  I  at  another  and  he  sent 
a  message  which  went  around  the  world  and 
through  Japan  and  reached  me  at  my  desk 
in  twenty-six  minutes.  Japan,  at  that  time, 
had  a  feudal  monarchy  and  to-day  it  has  a 
constitution  with  representative  government, 
universal  suffrage  and  a  cabinet  of  responsible 
ministers.  Its  navy  was  then  the  antiquated 
junks  and  now  it  has  one  of  the  most  modern, 
efficient  and  powerful  of  any  nation.  Its 
army  still  used  spears,  bows  and  arrows 
and  were  protected  by  armor,  while  its  most 
efficient  modern  army  has  successfully  and 
victoriously  fought  one  of  the  most  powerful 
of  military  nations.  It  has  a  school  system 
for  universal  education  and  universities  for 
higher  education.  It  has  the  telegraph,  the 
telephone  and  every  appliance  of  science  and 
invention  which  is  possessed  by  the  most 
advanced  nations.  The  marvel  of  this  is  that 
Japan  has  accomplished  these  miracles  in  fifty 
years  and  caught  up  with  the  Western  nations 
who  have  been  developing  for  twenty  centuries. 
The  greater  marvel  is  that,  while  Japan  had  an 
Eastern  civilization  which  antedated  the  Chris 
tian  era,  and  had  a  literature  which  was  classic, 
[200] 


TRIBUTE   TO   AMBASSADOR   GERARD 

while  Europe  was  in  the  Dark  Ages,  yet  within 
this  brief  period  of  a  half  a  century  she  threw 
off  the  prejudices,  the  teachings  and  the  heredity 
of  the  East  and,  to  take  her  place  as  a  world 
power,  adopted  the  civilization  and  progressive 
results,  ideas,  and  policies  of  the  West. 

I  was  only  a  few  months  in  the  diplomatic 
service  when  I  resigned,  because  I  was  unable 
to  leave  the  United  States  and  go  to  my  post. 
Nevertheless,  once  a  Minister — always  a  Min 
ister.  I  hail  and  greet  Mr.  Gerard  as  having 
kept  up  and  worthily  sustained  the  best  tradi 
tions  of  American  diplomatic  service. 


[201 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  "New  York 
World"  to  President  Wilson  and  Others,  in 
Commemoration  of  Securing  Permanent 
Light  for  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  December 
2,  1916. 

Mr.  President,  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen: 

The  power  of  the  press  is  a  well  worn  theme, 
but  it  successfully  performs  other  functions 
than  moulding  or  leading  public  opinion.  It 
originates  and  leads  in  contributions  for  philan 
thropic  purposes  and  to  relieve  from  great  calam 
ities,  for  scientific  research,  for  exploration  and 
discovery.  The  New  York  World  has  to  its 
credit,  among  other  things,  two  successful 
efforts,  the  second  of  which  we  celebrate  to-day. 
When  France  offered  to  the  United  States  the 
noble  Statue  of  Liberty  Enlightening  the  World, 
a  pedestal  had  to  be  provided.  There  were  no 
national  or  state  appropriations,  public  con 
tributions  were  inadequate  when  the  World 
appealed  to  the  people,  and  in  a  few  days  the 
required  amount  of  over  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  was  secured.  Liberty  Enlightening  the 
World  had  ceased  with  the  years  almost 
entirely  to  illuminate  the  pathway  to  this  port 
of  hope  for  those  seeking  the  refuge  and  protec 
tion  of  American  liberty.  Again  this  great 
[2021 


STATUE  OF  LIBERTY  SPEECH 

newspaper  made  its  effort  and  appeal  and  now 
for  all  time  the  statue  will  flash  its  beneficent 
message  to  the  sky,  the  waters  and  the  earth. 

It  may  be  well  to  recall  briefly  the  origin  of 
this  gift  from  France  to  the  United  States. 
The  idea  originated  among  patriotic  French 
men  who  wished  to  create  an  enduring  monu 
ment  to  the  intimate  ties  and  century  old 
friendship  of  these  two  greatest  Republics  of 
the  world.  Two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
of  the  men,  women  and  children  of  France 
contributed  to  the  fund.  The  French  govern 
ment  gave  to  the  enterprise  its  cordial  support 
and  sent  a  notable  delegation  of  its  eminent 
citizens  to  the  unveiling.  This  occasion  to 
night  is  for  me  one  both  of  memorable  and 
sorrowful  recollection.  Of  all  the  famous  com 
pany  who  participated  in  the  ceremonies  thirty 
years  ago,  I  am  the  only  survivor.  Among  the 
French  were  Count  de  Lesseps,  then  at  the 
zenith  of  his  fame  as  the  builder  of  the  Suez 
Canal  and  projector  of  what  seemed  another 
triumph  at  Panama,  and  the  sculptor  Bartholdi. 
They  have  joined  the  majority  and  so  have 
most  of  the  statesmen,  generals,  admirals  and 
men  of  letters  who  accompanied  them.  Presi 
dent  Cleveland  received  the  statue  and  was 
surrounded  by  Bayard,  Secretary  of  State, 
Whitney,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Lament, 
Secretary  of  War,  Vilas,  Postmaster  General 
all  are  gone.  The  chairman  of  the  committee 
[203] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

was  William  M.  Evarts.  The  opening  prayer 
was  made  by  the  Rev.  Richard  M.  Storrs,  and 
the  benediction  pronounced  by  Bishop  Potter. 
They  too  have  left  blessed  memories.  I  de 
livered  the  oration. 

There  was  no  appropriation  for  the  entertain 
ment  of  these  distinguished  visitors,  so,  at  the 
request  of  the  Secretary  of  Navy,  I  took  them 
to  Chicago,  and  Frank  Thompson  of  the 
Pennsylvania  railroad  carried  them  to  other 
places  of  interest,  to  Washington  and  back  to 
New  York.  Niagara  Falls  received  amid  the 
acclaim  of  all  present  its  finest  tribute  from 
Admiral  Jaures.  Said  the  Admiral,  "I  have 
sailed  around  the  globe  and  seen  all  its  wonders. 
This  is  the  finest.  When  there  shall  be  held  an 
exhibition  to  which  all  the  stars  and  planets  of 
the  universe  contribute  then*  best,  the  earth 
will  display  Niagara  Falls." 

M.  LeFaivre,  the  representative  of  France, 
in  presenting  the  statue  said,  "To  us  American 
and  Frenchmen  liberty  is  not  only  a  common 
doctrine,  it  is  also  a  family  tie.  This  statue, 
pledge  of  a  fraternal  union  between  the  greatest 
Republics  of  the  world,  is  greeted  simul 
taneously  by  more  than  a  hundred  millions  of 
free  men .  who  tender  friendly  hands  to  each 
other  across  the  ocean."  To  this  President 
Cleveland  responding  said,  "The  people  of  the 
United  States  accept  with  gratitude  from  their 
brethren  of  the  French  Republic  the  great  and 
[204] 


STATUE  OF  LIBERTY  SPEECH 

complete  work  of  art  we  here  inaugurate. 
This  token  of  affection  and  consideration  of  the 
people  of  France  demonstrates  a  kinship  of 
Republics  and  conveys  to  us  the  assurance 
that,  in  our  efforts  to  commend  to  mankind  the 
excellence  of  a  government  resting  upon  the 
popular  will,  we  still  have  beyond  the  Ajnerican 
continent  a  steadfast  ally." 

Thus,  before  this  statue  and  its  significant 
message,  thus,  in  the  presence  in  spirit  and 
through  their  representatives  of  all  the  people  of 
France  and  of  the  United  States,  was  reaffirmed 
our  gratitude  for  the  unselfish  sacrifices  and 
devotion  of  France  in  our  hour  of  need  and  the 
joint  obligations  of  both  peoples -to  liberty. 

The  story  of  how  France  came  to  our 
rescue  in  the  most  critical  period  of  our  Revo 
lution  is  the  most  romantic  in  history.  ^  It 
surpasses  in  its  realism  all  efforts  of  the  imagina 
tion.  The  way  had  been  prepared  by  the  essays 
on  liberty  of  Rousseau,  Voltaire  and  other 
Frenchmen  of  genius.  A  nation  ground  down 
by  tyranny  and  taxes  saw  in  these  theories  a 
ray  of  hope,  and  a  frivolous  court  wearied  of 
pleasure  an  interesting  plaything.  The  imagi 
nation  of  a  young  French  noble  of  the  greatest 
position,  largest  fortune  and  prospects  in  his 
own  country  of  the  most  brilliant  future  was 
captured  by  their  writings.  The  Marquis  de 
Lafayette  was  a  guest  at  a  dinner  given  by  his 
general  to  a  Royal  Duke,  brother  of  the  King 
[2051 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

of  England.  The  Duke  said,  "The  most 
amazing  madness  of  this  mad  age  is  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  made  by  our 
American  Colonies/7  and  then  he  read  it. 
Lafayette  at  once  wrote  his  wife,  "Dear  Heart, 
when  I  heard  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence  my  heart  enlisted. "  It  reduced 
to  practice  the  theories  in  which  he  believed. 
In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  King  and 
his  ministers,  Lafayette  purchased  a  ship, 
sailed  to  our  shores  and  placed  his  life  and 
fortune  at  the  service  of  American  indepen 
dence.  To  our  Congress,  hesitating  to  receive 
one  so  young  (Lafayette  was  twenty)  Lafayette 
wrote,  "After  the  sacrifices  I  have  made,  I 
have  the  right  to  exact  two  favors,  one  to 
serve  at  my  own  expense  and  the  other  to 
serve  as  a  volunteer."  Washington,  with  his 
rare  insight  into  the  worth  of  men,  was  captured, 
when,  after  showing  the  French  officer  accus 
tomed  to  the  pomp  of  the  most  brilliant  army 
in  the  world,  his  ragged  continentals  with  an 
apology  for  their  difference  in  equipment  from 
the  French,  Lafayette  answered,  "Sir,  it  is  to 
learn,  not  to  teach  that  I  am  here. "  Then  was 
formed  one  of  the  closest  of  friendships  between 
Washington  and  Lafayette.  Adoration  with 
love  from  Lafayette,  gratitude  and  esteem  from 
Washington. 

The  year  passed  during  which  Lafayette  rose 
steadily  in  the  esteem  of  his  Commander  as  a 

[206] 


STATUE  OF  LIBERTY  SPEECH 

soldier  and  a  citizen.  With  our  credit  exhausted 
and  our  resources  almost  gone,  Washington 
wrote  to  Lafayette,  "We  are  nearly  at  the  end 
of  our  tether. "  Lafayette  returned  to  France. 
Nothing  could  resist  him.  Against  the  advice 
of  statesmen  and  financiers  he  carried  France 
into  an  alliance  with  the  United  States.  France 
had  all  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain,  while 
to  the  United  States  the  armies,  the  fleets  and 
the  gold  from  France  were  vital  to  its  inde 
pendence.  The  adventure  cost  France  about 
four  hundred  millions,  or  in  values  of  to-day 
two  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  Already  in 
serious  financial  difficulties  this  additional  ex 
pense  bankrupted  her  treasury,  raised  her  taxes 
to  an  insupportable  burden  and  brought  on  the 
French  Revolution.  Marie  Antoinette's  en 
thusiasm  for  our  cause  gained  over  the  King 
and  Court  for  the  alliance,  and  in  the  aftermath 
both  fell  victims  to  the  Terror.  Then  came 
Napoleon,  who  organized  into  resistless  armies 
the  democratic  spirit  of  the  revolution,  tumbled 
kings  from  their  thrones  and  destroyed  forever 
the  doctrine  of  the  ruling  by  divine  right. 
Then,  in  the  fullness  of  time  and  largely  because 
of  the  success  of  the  American  experiment  came 
the  French  Republic. 

Liberty  is  won  by  sacrifices  and  maintained 
by  vigilance.     History  is  full  of  dramatic  con 
trasts.     None  are  greater  than  the  horrors  to 
civilians  in  the  war  now  raging  in  Europe,  and 
[207] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

the  march  of  the  French  army  from  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  to  Yorktown,  Virginia,  and 
return.  They  were  accustomed  to  the  license 
of  the  soldiers  of  all  nations  at  that  period,  but 
aristocratic  officers  and  peasant  soldiers  came 
here  in  a  condition  of  chivalric  exaltation.  In 
their  long  marches,  and  with  many  privations, 
not  an  apple  was  taken  or  a  fence  rail  burned 
without  the  consent  of  the  owner  and  full  com 
pensation.  In  wars  of  that  time  women  were 
the  sport  and  spoil  of  armies,  but  every  home 
in  our  land  rang  with  praises  of  the  gallantry 
and  courtesy  of  the  French  army. 

Thirty  years  ago,  when  the  Statue  of  Liberty 
was  inaugurated,  was  a  time  of  intellectual  and 
patriotic  exaltation  in  France.  Ten  years  had 
passed  since  the  surrender  at  Sedan  and  the 
subsequent  occupancy  of  the  country  by  the 
enemy.  Moltke  said,  "To  reduce  France  to 
impotence  for  the  future  we  must  take  more 
territory, ' '  but  Bismarck  answered, ' '  With  wrest 
ing  from  her  Alsace  and  Lorraine  and  imposing 
an  indemnity  of  five  thousand  millions  of  francs 
in  gold  we  have  bled  France  white."  The 
days  of  miracles  may  have  passed,  but  there 
are  no  limits  to  the  miracles  of  patriotism. 
Thiers  appealed  to  the  people  and  in  a  few 
months  from  them  came  all  their  savings.  The 
indemnity  was  paid  and  France  was  free,  but 
with  their  dearly  bought  liberty  came  an 
energizing  of  spirit  and  strength  which  in 
[208] 


STATUE    OF   LIBERTY   SPEECH 

a  decade  had  worked  another  miracle  in  the 
regeneration  of  France.  There  is  sentiment 
as  well  as  savagery  in  war.  For  two  years  and 
until  the  indemnity  was  paid  in  1872  the  enemies' 
army  of  occupation  held  Verdun.  When  this 
war  began  the  idea  of  the  enemy  was  to  capture 
Verdun  with  its  vast  fortresses,  and  the  mem 
ory  of  1870  and  its  defeats  would  paralyze 
France.  There  was  a  new  France  at  Verdun  in 
1914.  They  were  not  the  disheartened  soldiers  of 
the  corrupt  Third  Empire,  but  the  children  of  a 
third  of  a  century  of  Republican  government. 
They  have  refuted  the  age-long  belief  that 
democracies  cannot  organize  and  patiently 
sacrifice  and  endure  for  war.  The  strongest, 
ablest,  and  one  of  the  most  courageous  armies 
the  world  has  known  has  for  two-thirds  of  a 
year,  in  ceaseless  and  bloody  battles  by  day 
and  night,  been  hurled  against  Verdun.  Though 
more  than  a  half  million  have  died  to  take 
Verdun,  it  is  still  French.  Thermopylae  and 
Marathon  after  three  thousand  years  still  fire 
the  blood.  There  is  day  after  day  in  our  sister 
Republic  a  drama  of  liberty  enacted  in  the 
same  spirit  but  infinitely  greater,  than  Mara 
thon  or  Thermopylae. 

Xjray,  pleasure  loving,  intellectual  France, 
with  a  ring  of  steel  and  bursting  shells  all 
along  her  borders,  and  her  enemy  in  possession 
of  part  of  her  territory,  is  giving  her  whole 
population  for  the  preservation  of  her  life  and 
[209] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

liberty.  Greater  than  any  nation  of  ancient 
and  modern  times,  she  has  found  her  soul. 
Mothers  who  have  lost  their  sons,  grieve  that 
they  have  not  others  to  give.  Wives,  whose 
husbands  have  fallen,  rush  to  enlist  in  any 
service  which  will  fill  their  places.  France, 
our  friend  in  our  tune  of  trial,  the  French 
Republic,  the  child  of  our  Revolution,  is  a 
living  embodiment  of  Liberty  Enlightening  the 
World. 


210] 


Speech  at  the  Seventy-fifth  Anniversary  of  the 
Philharmonic  Society  of  New  York,  Wal 
dorf-Astoria,  January  21,  1907. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

A  famous  politician  in  his  frequent  appeals 
for  popular  support  was  accustomed  to  say  in 
his  speeches,  "The  greatest  danger  to  the  people 
is  the  possession  of  a  million  dollars. "  When 
he  died,  and  his  estate  was  appraised,  it  was 
discovered  that  he  had  only  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  A  hundred  years  is  the 
popular  climax  of  life  and  history,  but  three 
quarters  of  a  century,  in  its  story  and  interests, 
is  often  quite  as  interesting  and  important. 
In  fact,  there  is  no  century  of  the  past  which 
equals  in  its  contributions  to  art,  science  and 
invention,  to  liberty,  humanity  and  social 
justice,  these  seventy-five  years  of  the  life  of 
the  Philharmonic  Society. 

And  while  all  of  the  achievements  of  this 
marvelous  three  quarters  of  a  century  in  the 
uplift,  liberalization  and  expansion  of  civiliza 
tion  are  now  drenched  in  blood,  we  can  here 
to-night  hail  the  peaceful  beginning,  the  upward 
course  and  the  triumphant  and  beneficent 
closing  of  its  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
Philharmonic  Society. 

The  older  I  grow  and  the  more  I  study  and 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

observe,  the  more  I  am  impressed  with  the  power 
of  heredity.  Great  as  we  are,  and  in  many 
ways  we  have  marched  ahead  of  older  nations, 
we  lag  far  behind  in  the  higher  arts  and  in 
music.  The  highly  civilized  peoples  of  older 
countries,  from  the  folk  lore  and  folk  songs  of 
thousands  of  years,  have  developed  in  a  wonder 
ful  way  both  music,  its  composers  and  inter 
preters.  But  we,  for  nearly  a  hundred  years, 
were  dominated  by  the  Puritan  spirit.  The 
Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  before  they  came  to  Eng 
land  lived  many  years  in  Holland.  They  enjoyed 
its  hospitality,  the  opportunities  of  its  universi 
ties,  and  a  knowledge  and  practice  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  in  the  only  country  in  the  world, 
at  that  time  when  they  existed.  They  sang 
hymns  when  they  embarked  from  Delfshaven 
and  brought  some  literature  and  practice  hym- 
nology  with  them  to  Massachusetts,  but  the 
heavy  Puritan  emigration  which  came  a  few 
years  afterwards  to  Massachusetts  Bay  be 
longed  to  that  army  of  iconoclasts  who  smashed 
organs,  drove  out  choirs  and  suppressed  church 
music.  For  nearly  a  century  the  Puritan  min 
isters  governed  the  New  England  Colonies. 

Music  is  irrepressible,  song  is  in  human  nature 
to  express  its  joy  or  its  sorrow,  and  cannot  be 
wholly  eliminated.  The  Puritan  ministers  dis 
covered  this  and  in  their  slow  evolution  met 
many  difficulties.  The  first  was  should  those 
who  were  not  members  of  the  church  be  per- 
[212] 


PHILHARMONIC   SOCIETY   SPEECH 

mitted  to  join  in  the  singing.  The  next  and 
most  difficult  was,  should  women  be  permitted 
to  sing.  At  this  point  they  ran  against  St. 
Paul's  injunction  that  women  should  keep  silent 
in  the  churches.  The  present  excitement  over 
Woman  Suffrage  is  nothing  compared  with  the 
agitation  with  which  the  women  endeavored 
to  enforce  their  claims.  They  even  attacked 
the  divinity  of  St.  Paul  and  claimed  that  some 
of  his  utterances  were  those  of  a  man  who  was 
a  bachelor  and  not  inspired  by  the  spirit.  Finally 
the  ministers  announced  that  it  was  not  the 
harmony  but  the  heart  which  was  acceptable. 
They  quoted  St.  Jerome  who  wrote : 

"They  are  not  artfully  to  supple  their 
jaws  and  throats,  for  if  a  man  has  an 
unpleasant  voice,  if  he  has  good  works, 
he  is  a  sweet  singer  in  God's  ear." 

Some  even  went  so  far  as  to  insist  that  every 
member  of  the  congregation,  whether  they  knew 
anything  of  music  or  not,  and  without  regard 
to  tune  or  harmony,  should  give  full-throated 
expression  to  their  feelings,  but  even  in  such 
unpromising  surroundings  there  grew  up  a 
resistless  body  of  music  lovers  and  music 
teachers. 

Dr.  Lowell  Mason  was  the  father  of  American 

church  music.     But  the  prejudices  against  its 

improvements    and    expansion   received    their 

hardest  blow  when  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  then 

[213] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

at  the  height  of  his  reputation  and  influence, 
brought  out  a  hymnal  in  which  he  had  incor 
porated  many  of  the  well-known  and  popular 
tunes.  He  annihilated  his  critics  by  declaring 
that  the  "  Devil  is  not  entitled  to  all  the  best 
music." 

But  it  was  one  hundred  and  seventy  years 
after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  before  they  had 
the  first  oratorio  in  Boston.  That  was  given  in 
honor  of  the  visit  of  President  Washington. 
When  he  first  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  two  or 
three  years  before,  to  preside  at  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention,  from  which  came  our 
Government,  the  Philadelphians  greeted  him 
with  an  opera.  Washington  was  the  most 
complete  all  around  man  of  common  sense  and 
poise  that  ever  lived.  It  is  singular  that  Phil 
adelphia  and  Boston,  and  subsequently  New 
York,  should  have  greeted  him  with  classic 
music.  Great  as  he  was,  he  was  ignorant  of 
music,  for  he  lacked  heredity  and  opportunity. 
I  believe  Jefferson  played  the  violin,  but  other 
wise  none  of  our  presidents  or  great  statesmen 
were  musicians,  though  in  Europe  music  has  for 
centuries  owed  its  existence  and  promotion  to 
the  support  of  the  government.  General  Grant, 
our  most  famous  soldier,  told  me  that  he  only 
understood  two  tunes,  one  was  "Old  Hundred" 
and  the  other  was  "Yankee  Doodle,"  but  that 
he  could  not  tell  one  from  the  other.  It  was  my 
privilege,  many  times,  to  meet  with  one  of  the 
[2141 


PHILHARMONIC   SOCIETY   SPEECH 

most  remarkable  men  of  his  period,  Mr.  Glad 
stone.  His  encyclopaedic  knowledge  was  un 
equalled.  When  he  was  Prime  Minister,  and 
there  was  an  acute  crisis  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  I  was  in  the  same  box  with  him  at  the 
Opera  at  Covent  Garden.  The  Whips  of  his 
party  were  arriving,  receiving  instructions  and 
returning  to  Parliament.  Mr.  Gladstone,  in 
the  intervals,  gave  a  history  of  Opera  in  London 
so  complete  and  exhaustive  that  it  might  have 
come  from  the  pen  of  the  most  competent 
musical  critics.  He  said  he  had  been  a  close 
attendent  upon  opera  for  sixty  years.  He  then 
picturesquely  painted  word  pictures  of  the  dif 
ferent  singers  during  that  period  and  also  of 
the  operas  presented  and  a  discriminating  com 
ment  upon  their  merits.  He  said  that  so  many 
years  ago,  naming  them,  the  conductor  of 
Covent  Garden  raised  the  pitch.  This  com 
pelled  most  singers  to  use  the  tremulo.  Since 
then  I  have  never  enjoyed  the  opera. 

I  remember  when  singing  societies  sprang 
up  all  over  the  country.  The  suppressed  musi 
cal  spirit  had  burst  its  bonds.  They  were  crude 
affairs  but  educational.  The  singing  master 
in  our  village  was  a  stern  elder,  who  knew  only 
psalms  and  hymns.  He  believed  in  the  tuning 
fork  but  was  suspicious  of  instrumental  accom 
paniments.  It  was  a  mighty  struggle  which 
brought  into  the  churches  the  organ.  I  also 
with  keen  enjoyment  recall  the  traveling  singing 
[215] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

societies  which  began  to  give  concerts.  It  is 
over  seventy  years  ago  when  the  first  of  these 
came  to  our  village  of  Peekskill,  and  two  of  their 
songs  left  an  indelible  impression  upon  my 
memory.  I  can  to  this  day  repeat  a  few  lines 
and  the  way  the  words  were  pronounced.  The 
first  was : 

"Roll  on,  silver  mooen, 

Guide  the  traveller  in  his  way, 

While  the  nightingale's  song 
Is  in  tuueen." 

As  a  boy  I  never  heard  a  nightingale,  or  of  one, 
and  doubted  the  efficacy  of  the  moon  as  a 
lantern.  From  the  next  song  I  recall: 

"We  will  chase  the  antelope  over  the  plain, 
And  bring  the  tiger  home  with  a  chain." 

Again  I  was  at  a  loss  how  this  elderly  family 
were  to  chase  the  antelope  and  lead  the  tiger. 
I  remember  as  if  it  were  yesterday  the  arrival 
of  Jenny  Lind.  She  came  under  the  auspices 
of  Barnum.  I  was  then  about  sixteen.  That 
matchless  showman  heralded  her  in  such  a  way 
that  the  harbor  was  full  of  boats  to  meet  her 
ship.  The  steamboat  whistles  blew  and  she 
rolled  up  Broadway  in  her  carriage  under 
triumphal  arches  to  be  greeted  by  the  Mayor 
and  Municipal  authorities.  The  papers  were 
full  of  the  wonders  of  her  voice.  She  had 
cured  the  sick,  she  had  brought  the  dying  back 
to  life,  she  had  given  a  realization  of  the 
[2161 


PHILHARMONIC   SOCIETY   SPEECH 

heavenly  choir,  and  the  song  birds  of  the  air 
were  her  pupils.  None  of  our  great  men, 
generals,  or  statesmen  ever  had  such  a  triumphal 
march  through  the  country. 

"The  Beggars'  Opera"  was  presented  in 
New  York  at  Society  Hall  in  1759,  but  the 
effort  was  not  sufficiently  successful  to  encourage 
its  continuance.  In  1825  New  York  had  a 
season  of  Grand  Opera.  The  artists  were  the 
Garcia  family.  Their  triumph  was  in  present 
ing  the  "  Barber  of  Seville"  by  Rossini.  Father, 
mother,  daughter  and  son  took  the  leading 
characters.  The  father,  Almirina,  his  daughter 
Rosina,  his  son  Figaro,  and  his  wife  Bertha. 

With  Colonel  Watterson  delivering  one,  I 
delivered  the  other  oration  at  the  opening  of  the 
Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  in  1893. 
The  music  of  that  great  celebration  of  the  dis 
covery  of  America  was  under  the  management 
of  your  one  time  great  leader,  Theodore  Thomas. 
To  him,  as  much  as  any,  is  our  country  indebted 
for  education  in  the  taste,  extension  and  en 
couragement  for  higher  music.  It  is  most 
interesting  to  study  the  beginnings  of  great 
men  or  successful  enterprises,  or  the  origin  of 
revolutions.  Throwing  tea  into  Boston  harbor 
started  the  revolt  which  ended  in  the  Republic  of 
the  United  States.  Hurling  a  town  counselor  out 
of  the  window  at  Prague  in  Bohemia  began  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  which  devastated  Europe. 

The  Philharmonic  Society  'grew  out  of  a 
[217] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

funeral.  A  remarkable  genius,  Mr.  U.  C.  Hill, 
gathered  the  musicians  of  the  city  to  give  what 
he  called  a  mournful  concert  in  memory  of  one 
of  their  fellows,  Daniel  Schlesinger.  The  suc 
cess  was  so  great  that  the  performers  adjourned 
to  the  Shakespeare  tavern  to  talk  it  over. 
In  those  days,  as  in  the  times  of  Shakespeare 
and  Sam  Johnson,  everything  of  moment  was 
discussed  and  decided  in  the  tavern.  Hill's 
energy  and  enthusiasm  overcame  all  opposition, 
and  seventy-five  years  ago  he  organized  the 
Philharmonic  Society.  The  Society  has  been 
fortunate  in  its  secretaries.  These  gentlemen 
have  recorded,  with  great  picturesqueness  and 
spirit,  the  story  of  each  year.  The  Secretary 
says  in  the  earlier  meetings  of  the  Society, 
"The  conductor  said  let  the  oboe  sound  A," 
and  then  they  marched  in  solemn  procession 
to  the  platform,  the  effect  of  which  was  to  pro 
duce  in  the  audience  respect,  awe  and  antic 
ipation. 

The  Secretary  of  fifty  years  ago  records  that 
the  concerts  of  the  Society  were  so  constantly 
disturbed  by  the  talking  and  laughing  of 
frivolous  auditors  that  after  an  hour's  lecture  on 
proper  manners  and  decorum  by  Mr.  Willis, 
the  music  lovers  were  formed  in  groups  about 
these  disturbers  and  awed  them  into  silence. 
Opera  goers  who  are  not  interested  in  the  opera 
still  exist.  I  heard  one  night  in  a  nearby  box 
at  the  Metropolitan  a  wife  say  to  her  husband, 
[2181 


PHILHARMONIC   SOCIETY   SPEECH 

a  well-known  financier,  "My  dear,  don't  you 
think  the  performance  fine  and  Caruso  great?" 
"Oh,"  he  answered  wearily,  "Caruso,  Amato, 
Scotti,  all  sound  the  same  to  me,  I  can't  tell  them 
apart."  Another  Secretary  reports,  in  the  early 
struggles  of  the  Society,  that  they  were  facing 
a  deficit  and  possible  bankruptcy,  when  the 
conductor  decided  to  omit  gloves.  This  led 
to  a  saving  of  $4.75,  which  rescued  the  Society 
from  impending  peril  and  placed  it  upon  a  sol 
vent  basis.  Another  Secretary  reports  that 
on  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  for  the  first 
time  in  its  history,  the  Society  postponed  its 
regular  concert.  A  month  afterwards  they  had 
one  in  commemoration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
played  Beethoven's  Third  Symphony.  The 
Secretary  remarks  that  Beethoven  composed 
this  Symphony  to  portray  the  workings  of 
Napoleon's  mind,  which  the  composer  conceived 
to  be  most  chaotic  until  the  great  master,  like 
the  universe  out  from  original  chaos,  evolved 
harmony.  And  the  Secretary  says  the  playing 
was  so  wonderful  in  the  funeral  march  that  the 
audience  could  hear  the  tears  dropping  on  the 
lid  of  the  coffin. 

At  certain  periods  are  developed  great  gen 
iuses  in  different  departments  of  human  ac 
tivities.  They  seldom  come  alone,  but  in 
numbers,  and  leave  a  marked  impression  upon 
their  own  and  succeeding  generations.  This  is 
true  in  art,  in  letters  and  in  arms.  The  Phil- 
]219] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

harmonic  Society  was  fortunate  in  being  born 
in  one  of  these  periods  of  spiritual  elevation. 
The  great  masters  of  music  in  many  countries 
were  giving  to  the  world  their  wonderful  crea 
tions.  They  appeared  in  Italy,  Germany, 
France  and  England.  Though  feebly  pre 
sented,  at  that  time  here  by  strolling  artists, 
yet  the  United  States  was  feeling  the  effect  of 
the  works  of  these  marvelous  masters.  Among 
them  were  Purcell,  Handel,  Hayden,  Bach, 
Mozart  and  Beethoven.  Happily  your  Society 
was  sufficiently  organized,  educated  and  har 
moniously  led  to  grasp,  present  and  preserve 
these  wonderful  opportunities.  While  in  the 
cataclysmic  changes  of  this  three-quarters  of  a 
century  thrones  have  been  overthrown,  dy 
nasties  have  disappeared,  great  nations  have 
been  organized,  great  battles  fought  and  ad 
vances  and  reforms  brought  about  by  bloody 
wars  and  infinite  sufferings,  the  Philharmonic 
Society  has  pursued  its  way  peacefully  and  har 
moniously.  It  has  given  great  pleasure  to  three 
generations,  but  it  has  been  a  powerful  institu 
tion  for  instruction  and  education  in  the  higher 
walks  of  music.  It  is  one  of  the  few  societies 
which  has  survived  the  inevitable  difficulties  of 
a  voluntary  organization.  It  celebrates  its 
seventy-fifth  anniversary  more  perfect  in  its 
arts,  more  powerful  in  its  presentation,  more 
prosperous  in  its  career  and  with  better  promise 
for  the  future  than  ever  before. 
[2201 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  the  Pilgrims  So 
ciety  to  Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate  on  his 
Eighty-fifth  Birthday,  the  Union  League 
Club,  New  York,  January  27, 1917. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Friends: 

In  my  sixty  years  on  the  platform,  I  have 
been  introduced  by  all  sorts  and  kinds  and  con 
ditions  of  men  and  women,  but  never  in  my 
life  have  I  been  frescoed  and  rubbed  up  and 
down  and  painted  so  luridly  and  multifariously 
as  I  have  been  by  the  chairman  to-night. 
(Laughter.) 

There  are  sceptics  who  will  throw  doubts 
upon  vigorous  age.  I  recently  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Academy  of  Medicine  upon 
the  art  of  living  long  and  growing  old  gracefully. 
In  the  accidents  of  newspaper  selection,  as  to 
what  the  public  wishes,  the  speech  found  a 
place  on  the  front  page  of  papers  all  over  the 
country.  Among  many  letters  which  I  have 
received  was  one  from  Los  Angeles,  California, 
in  which  the  writer  says,  "I  have  read  in  our 
local  newspaper  what  you  have  to  say  about 
growing  old.  It  is  in  the  main  all  right.  I  am 
eighty  years  of  age  myself,  but  when  you 
remark  that  you  are  as  well  in  every  respect  at 
eighty-three  as  you  were  at  fifty,  it  shows  that 
your  mind  is  impaired. "  (Laughter.)  To  live 
[221] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

to  be  eighty-five  or  a  hundred  and  five  is  not  in 
itself  a  distinction  or  cause  for  congratulation. 
The  elephant  and  the  turtle  can  do  better. 
Old  Thomas  Parr  is  reputed  to  have  lived  to 
the  age  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-three.  George 
III,  desiring  to  see  this  wonder,  invited  Parr 
to  dinner.  The  unusual  event  and  the  royal 
food  was  too  much  for  him  and  he  died  that  night. 
The  only  thing  known  to  either  his  contempora 
ries  about  him  is  his  great  age.  To  have  lived 
is  to  have  got  out  of  life  all  that  our  ability 
and  opportunity  has  permitted. 

We  have  had  many  lawyers  in  this  country, 
and  our  Bar  has  been  remarkable  for  its  famous 
men.  It  is  an  unusual  distinction  to  rise  to 
the  leadership  of  the  American  Bar  and  to  hold 
it  unquestioned  for  a  long  period.  This  our 
friend  did.  He  also  took  a  leading  part  in 
many  cases  of  national  interest  in  which  were 
settled  principles  of  vast  importance  to  the 
commercial,  financial  and  industrial  activities 
of  our  country.  To  have  been  associated 
under  such  conditions  for  more  than  half  a 
century  and  have  enjoyed  the  intimacy,  ad 
miration  and  friendship  of  all  the  great  lawyers 
'of  our  land,  is  in  itself  a  rare  and  beautiful  life. 
To  its  pleasure  and  distinction  is  also  added  that 
our  highest  courts,  which  have  always  been 
distinguished,  have  been  swayed  by  the  learning 
and  eloquence  of  the  advocate.  But  in  the 
progressive  value  of  services  so  important  in 


CHOATE'S  EIGHTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY 

settling  principles  of  law  may  be  added  that  in 
the  International  Tribunal,  which  at  The  Hague 
sought  to  establish  and  have  adopted  by  all 
nations  a  code  for  the  righteous  settlement  of 
international  difficulties,  the  most  powerful 
contributor  was  our  friend.  (Applause.)  Un 
happily  the  most  belligerent  powers  refused 
to  accept  the  decision  of  that  great  court, 
unhappily  the  principles  that  were  adopted  have 
been  violated  with  the  result  that  the  most 
disastrous,  destructive,  cruel  and  bloody  war 
of  all  times  is  now  upon  us.  But  in  the  great 
settlement,  when  the  peace  of  the  world  must 
be  established  upon  a  sure  and  permanent 
foundation,  the  exhausted  nations  and  peoples 
will  come  to  an  agreement  substantially  on  the 
terms  both  adopted  and  rejected  at  The  Hague 
with  a  world  court,  and  a  world  power  to 
enforce  its  decrees.  (Applause.) 

When  I  came  to  New  York  permanently, 
over  fifty  years  ago,  there  were  nearly  a  score 
of  orators  of  national  reputation,  especially  as 
" after-dinner"  speakers.  I  mean  the  after- 
dinner  speech  which,  while  promoting  gaiety 
and  hilarity,  also  enforces  a  truth  or  leaves  a 
lesson.  Taking  the  first  twenty-five  years  of 
this  fifty,  there  are  William  M.  Evarts,  for  a  long 
time  the  leader  of  our  national  Bar  and  the 
wittiest  man  in  the  country;  Ogden  Hoffman, 
with  rare  gifts;  the  two  Bradys,  James  T.  and 
Judge  John  R.,  both  remarkable;  Richard 


-      AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

0' Gorman  with  scintillating  Irish  humor  and 
eloquence;    Henry    Ward    Beecher,    who    was 
rarely  equalled  and  never  surpassed;  Doctor 
Storrs,   Doctor  Chapin  and  our  always  alto 
gether   witty   and    charming   General    Horace 
Porter.     But    first    of    them    all  Mr.  Choate. 
Our  city  has  increased  several  times  in  popula 
tion,  in  public  meetings  and  demands  for  men 
who  can  acceptably  present  the  thought  of  the 
hour.  It  is  unaccountable  that,  with  this  great 
ancestry  of  oratory,  humor,  wit  and  wisdom, 
there  are  not  to-day  a  half  dozen  or  even  any 
where  near  that  who  enjoy  the  local  or  national 
reputation    of    these    wonderful    ancestors    in 
eloquence.     We  read  with  pleasure  of  the  tilts 
in  arms  by  the  Knights  of  old,  especially  as 
described  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  "Ivanhoe." 
But  the  tilts  between  the  Knights  who  were 
the  speakers  of  the  evening  in  those  glorious 
days,  were  quite  as  exciting  though  not  so  dan 
gerous.     For    forty    years    very    many    times 
during  the  winter  I  have  broken  a  lance  with 
Mr.  Choate.     Unlike  the  ancient  tournament, 
it  was  the  one  who  spoke  last  who  had  his 
innings.     I  remember  on  one  occasion  he  put 
me  entirely  out  of  commission.     In  a  town  in 
Western  New  York,  which  had  been  named  after 
me,  the  borers  had  struck  natural  gas  and  im 
mediately  after  the  American  fashion  formed 
a  company  and  proceeded  to  sell  stock.     Choate 
got  hold  of  their  prospectus  which  read,  "The 
[224] 


CHOATE'S  EIGHTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY 

Depew  Natural  Gas  Company,  Limited/'  and 
then  in  his  own  inimitable  way  brought  down 
the  house  and  overwhelmed  me  by  asking, 
"Why  limited?" 

I  have  been  going  to  Europe  annually  for  half 
a  century.  During  that  time  I  came  to  know 
very  well  our  Ministers  and  Ambassadors 
abroad.  Whatever  may  be  said,  and  much  of  it 
is  true,  against  the  fearful  and  wonderful  way 
in  which  we  have  been  represented  at  the  court 
of  foreign  nations,  our  long  list  of  Ministers  and 
Ambassadors  to  the  Court  of  St.  James  is  with 
out  an  exception  one  of  rare  and  eminent  ability 
and  distinction.  I  remember  when,  during  our 
Civil  War,  some  act  was  proposed  by  Great 
Britain  and  the  remark  by  our  Minister,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  to  Lord  John  Russell,  "My 
Lord,  this  is  war,"  prevented  that  action.  Lord 
John  Russell  knew  that  Mr.  Adams  spoke  for 
his  country  and  meant  what  he  said.  James 
Russell  Lowell  was  a  brilliant  Minister,  he 
easily  was  the  foremost  in  reputation  among 
the  diplomats  in  London  of  his  period.  When 
he  was  appointed  all  England  read  his  works. 
One  Duchess,  who  had  been  pleased  with  the 
"Bigelow  Papers,"  greeted  him  with  great 
cordiality  and  said,  "Mr.  Bigelow,  I  have  read 
your  book  with  delight,  I  hope  Mrs.  Bigelow 
is  with  you."  Emory  Storrs  of  Chicago  was  a 
successful  lawyer  and  an  ambitious  politician. 
President  Arthur  refused  to  give  him  the 
[  225  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

Attorney-Generalship  which  he  had  asked  for 
but  soothed  him  and  gratified  his  vanity  by 
making  him  a  roving  Ambassador  without 
power,  his  commission  being  on  parchment, 
signed  by  the  President  and  Secretary  of  State 
and  with  the  great  seal  of  the  United  States 
attached.  Storrs  was  on  the  same  steamer 
with  me  going  over.  I  said,  "What  do  you 
expect  to  do?"  His  answer  was,  "I  understand 
that  Lowell,  our  Minister  to  England,  hardly 
ever  entertained  Americans.  I  am  going  to 
make  him  give  me  a  dinner."  We  were  again 
on  the  same  steamer  returning  home.  I  said, 
"Well,  Storrs,  tell  me  of  your  diplomatic  ad 
ventures."  He  said,  "I  was  in  the  Dresden 
Gallery,  in  the  room  where  they  keep  that 
marvelous  picture  by  Raphael,  the  Madonna 
and  Child.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  result  of 
a  divine  inspiration.  It  has  no  equal  in  the 
world.  While  I  was  gazing  on  it  enrapt 
in  admiration  and  awe,  I  felt  that  the  large 
crowd,  all  Americans,  were  looking  at  me, 
and  not  at  the  famous  painting.  I  said, 
1  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  am  only  an  American 
lawyer  and  my  clothes  were  made  in  Chicago; 
what  is  there  in  my  appearance  which  is  so 
singular  that  it  draws  you  away  from  your 
pilgrimage  to  see  this  marvelous  work  of  art, 
and  to  gaze  at  me?'  One  gentleman  stepped 
forward  and  said,  "  Excuse  us,  Mr.  Storrs, 
you  are  more  to  us  Americans  than  all  the 
[2261 


CHOATE'S  EIGHTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY 

pictures  in  this  gallery,  because  Mr.  Lowell  gave 
you  a  dinner."  (Laughter.) 

Robert  Lincoln  was  a  most  popular  Minister ; 
he  has  rare  social  gifts  and  is  a  charming  con 
versationalist.  Labouchere  told  me  that  when 
Mr.  Lincoln  arrived  in  England,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
then  Prime  Minister,  said  to  Labouchere, 
"I  am  exceedingly  anxious  to  meet  the  new 
American  Minister,  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  have  the 
greatest  admiration  for  his  father."  Labouchere 
arranged  a  dinner  at  his  house,  an  hour  out  of 
London.  He  called  for  Mr.  Gladstone,  and 
Mrs.  Gladstone  exacted  a  promise  that  her 
husband  should  be  returned  and  inside  his 
house  at  eleven  o'clock.  At  the  dinner  some 
thing  started  Mr.  Gladstone's  intellectual. 
He  launched  into  a  resistless  flow  of  oratorical 
monologue.  Mr.  Lincoln's  efforts,  even  to  ask 
a  question,  were  drowned  in  the  flood.  At 
eleven  o'clock  Mr.  Labouchere  interrupted 
saying,  "Mr.  Gladstone,  it  is  now  eleven 
o'clock,  and  I  promised  Mrs.  Gladstone  to  have 
you  back  home  at  this  hour,  and  it  will  take  an 
hour  to  return."  Mr.  Gladstone  said,  "Yes, 
yes,"  and  hastily  bid  everybody  good-night. 
While  riding  down  to  London  Mr.  Labouchere 
said,  "Well,  Mr.  Gladstone,  you  have  had  an 
evening  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  what  do  you  think 
of  him?"  He  answered,  "A  very  charming 
gentleman,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  much 
conversation."  (Laughter.) 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Mr.  Phelps  was  a  great  lawyer  and  an  able 
Minister;  he  also  won  distinction  both  as  a 
speaker  on  general  occasions  and  especially  with 
the  Bar.  Dining  with  English  judges  one  night, 
the  discussion  ran  upon  a  decision  they  had  ar 
rived  at  upon  a  novel  point  of  law.  They  invited 
Mr.  Phelps  to  participate  in  the  discussion  and 
the  result  was  that  they  took  their  decision  off 
the  file  and  changed  it.  It  was  in  competition 
with  the  great  ancestry  of  American  diplomats 
that  Mr.  Choate  entered  the  service  as  Ambas 
sador  to  Great  Britain.  He  was  there  for  six 
years.  As  a  diplomat,  he  took  an  active  and 
influential  part  in  the  settlement  of  acute 
questions  of  difference  between  the  two  coun 
tries.  He  soon  became  the  most  popular 
speaker  for  general  occasions  and  especially 
for  after-dinner  speeches.  His  wit,  genial 
humor  and  charming  personality  won  social 
England  as  it  seldom  has  been  won  by  any 
foreigner.  At  country  houses  all  over  the  land, 
the  week-end  parties  were  repeating  the  last 
mot  or  epigram  of  the  American  Ambassador. 
(Applause.)  He  did  much  to  put  life  into  the 
fruitless  efforts  to  provide  adequate  homes  for 
our  representatives  abroad.  It  was  when  Con 
gress  was  thrilled  by  the  story  which  came  over 
the  cable  that  Mr.  Choate,  standing  in  the  rain 
on  the  corner  of  his  street  one  night,  was 
accosted  by  a  policeman  who  said,  "Move  on, 
old  gentleman,  it  is  time  you  were  at  home.'7 

[2281 


CHOATE'S  EIGHTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY 

And  Mr.  Choate  answered,  "I  have  no  home, 
I  am  the  American  Ambassador."  (Laughter.) 

The  venerable  Law  Society  of  the  Benchers 
of  the  Inner  Temple  have  entertained  for  cen 
turies  in  their  ancient  Hall  sovereigns  and 
judges,  among  them  Queen  Elizabeth.  Though 
we  are  so  closely  allied  in  the  common  law  and 
its  traditions,  yet  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  our  American  Bar  the  doors  of  the  Inner 
Temple  were  opened  to  an  American  lawyer, 
and  Mr.  Choate  was  elected  a  Bencher. 
(Applause.) 

We  pilgrims  are  not  only  proud  of  our  Presi 
dent  but  grateful,  especially  for  the  services 
which  he  has  rendered  during  this  great  war. 
The  purpose  of  the  Pilgrims  Societies,  one  in 
New  York  and  the  other  in  London,  is  to  pro 
mote  friendly  relations  between  the  two  coun 
tries.  The  position  of  the  United  States  has 
been  difficult  since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
While  a  vast  majority  of  the  American  people 
sympathize  with  the  Allies,  nevertheless,  there 
is  such  a  strong  body  in  our  electorate  who  are 
blood  and  kin  with  the  Central  Powers,  that 
our  politicians  have  been  afraid,  and  many  of 
our  newspapers  uncertain.  But  Mr.  Choate, 
speaking  both  officially  as  President  of  the 
Pilgrims  and  personally  from  his  own  great 
position  as  foremost  American  citizen,  has  not 
hesitated  to  speak  with  vigor,  incisiveness  and 
eloquence  in  sympathy  with  the  Allies,  and  that 
[229] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

they  were  fighting  for  the  right  of  liberty  and 
civilization  in  the  world.  (Loud  applause  and 
cries  of  good,  good !)  His  utterances  have  done 
much  to  voice  American  public  opinion  and  give 
comfort  and  gratification  to  our  friends  abroad, 
in  Great  Britain  and  France. 

We  pay  many  tributes  in  our  lives  to  dis 
tinguished  men  because  of  their  intellectual 
achievements.  Many  tributes  to  dear  friends 
because  of  their  characters  and  personal  quali 
ties,  but  to-night  our  heads  and  hearts  are  in 
unison  in  greeting,  in  hailing  and  in  extending 
most  cordial  good  wishes  to  Mr.  Choate,  that 
he  may  pass  his  century  and  reach  the  goal  of 
his  ambition  to  be  the  oldest  living  graduate 
of  Harvard  University.  (Loud  applause.) 


230] 


Speech  at  the  Luncheon  given  by  the  Execu 
tive  Committee  of  the  Pilgrims  Society  to 
Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm  Tree,  Bankers  Club, 
New  York,  May  7,  1917. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Sir  Herbert  and  Friends: 

It  has  been  my  privilege  many  times  in  the 
past  to  bid  hail  and  farewell  to  eminent  English, 
Irish  and  Scotch  men  of  letters  and  actors  who 
have  honored  us  by  their  visits.  We  have 
been  glad  to  see  them,  and  after  their  triumphs 
in  our  country  to  couple  our  farewell  and  bon 
voyage  with  an  earnest  invitation  to  come  again. 

We  are  happy  to  include  in  this  distinguished 
list  our  guest  of  to-day.  He  has  peculiar  claims 
upon  our  admiration  and  affection.  He  has 
always  been  most  hospitable  to  Americans 
visiting  the  Mother  Country,  and  on  all  occa 
sions  given  cordial  service  for  friendly  relations 
between  our  two  nations. 

We  are  all  fond  of  Shakespeare  and  there  is 
no  author  so  universally  read  and  no  dramatist 
whose -productions  and  reproductions  we  love 
so  well.  I  recall  in  my  undergraduate  days  at 
Yale  University  that  the  student  mind  and  imag 
ination  were  captured  by  a  wonderful  preacher 
of  that  day  in  New  Haven,  the  Rev.  Doctor 
Bacon.  It  was  his  daughter  who  had  inherited 
the  creative  and  audacious  mentality  of  her 
[231  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

father,  who  believed  and  tried  to  prove  that  the 
author  of  Shakespeare's  plays  was  Lord  Bacon.- 
It  is  singular  how  that  Bacon  cult  grew 
and  expanded  and  how  much  ingenuity  was 
exhausted  in  endeavoring  to  enlarge  the  fame 
of  the  great  philosopher  and  jurist  into  the  all 
embracing  accomplishments  of  the  myriad 
minded  Shakespeare.  We  who  love  Shake 
speare  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Professor 
Wallace  of  Nebraska  and  his  wife,  whose  un 
selfish  and  laborious  researches  among  the 
musty  records  and  ancient  documents  of 
various  repositories  in  London  have  restored 
to  us  from  the  dim  and  clouded  past  the  daily 
life  of  Shakespeare,  and  enabled  us  to  see  him 
as  he  was  in  his  own  time  as  an  ordinary  man 
among  his  fellows  and  the  incomparable  genius 
among  his  fellow-workers  in  letters. 

In  every  generation  some  actor  of  genius 
restores  to  us  our  idols.  We  are  indebted  to 
Sir  Herbert  Tree  for  his  high  appreciation  and 
splendid  reproductions  of  these  masterpieces. 
Our  friend  leaves  us  to  encounter  in  order  to 
reach  his  home  perils  of  the  sea  unknown 
before,  perils  occasioned  by  savagery,  a  vio 
lation  of  all  law,  international,  human  and 
divine,  a  lust  for  the  lives  of  innocent  travelers 
never  known  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
It  is  a  curious  philosophy  which  believes 
that  the  killing  of  the  weak  will  terrify  the 
strong.  It  is  a  reversal  of  the  experience 
[2321 


TRIBUTE   TO    SIR   H.    BEERBOHM   TREE 

of  the  ages,  which  is  that  the  dullest  natures 
are  aroused  to  heroic  deeds  in  protecting 
or  avenging  their  defenceless  kindred.  "All 
the  world  is  a  stage,"  says  Shakespeare,  but 
there  is  now  being  acted,  day  by  day,  the 
tragedy  of  the  centuries.  The  dynamic  truth 
of  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law,  and 
at  the  Judgment  Seat  of  God  has  been  working 
its  way  from  Calvary  to  the  battle  of  the  Marne. 
Defeated  in  one  country,  it  has  been  successful 
in  another.  It  has  overturned  dynasties,  it 
has  changed  the  boundaries  of  kingdoms,  it  has 
peopled  wildernesses  with  settlers  seeking  civil 
and  religious  liberty  and  successful  in  their 
search. 

Now  for  the  first  time  in  history  the  whole 
world  is  in  arms  with  autocracy,  absolutism, 
feudalism,  militarism  on  the  one  side  and  free 
dom  and  civilization  on  the  other.  The  thought 
occurs  in  this  presence  that  if  Shakespeare  could 
have  created  his  masterpieces  out  of  the  limited 
material  at  his  disposal  what  wonders  would 
have  emanated  from  his  fertile  brain  in  pictur 
ing  the  actors  and  the  acts,  the  motives  and  the 
aims,  the  ambitions  and  the  sacrifices  of  this 
mighty  struggle.  Shakespeare  had  for  the 
basis  of  his  historical  plays  the  Chronicle  of 
Holinshed,  probably  the  poorest  history  ever 
written.  A  genius  who  puts  the  divine  spark 
into  the  mummy  is  not  a  plagiarist.  By 
Shakespeare  the  dry  dust  of  Holinshed Js  nar- 

[2331 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

rative  became  such  immortal  and  living  presen 
tations  of  English  history  that  the  great  Duke 
of  Marlborough  never  read  any  other  history 
than  Shakespeare's  plays  and  said  they  were 
the  inspiration  of  his  victories  and  his  policies. 
So  in  his  romantic  plays  a  forgotten  and  worth 
less  story  was  transformed  into  such  a  realiza 
tion  of  the  loves,  the  hates,  the  passions,  desires 
and  ambitions  of  human  nature  that  they  ap 
peal  with  equal  force  to  every  generation. 

An  American  friend  told  me  that  some 
years  ago  he  met  the  Crown  Prince  of  Germany 
several  times.  His  Royal  Highness  was  very 
frank  in  statements  of  what  he  expected  to  do 
when  he  came  to  the  throne.  Apparently  his 
most  absorbing  thought  was  that,  with  Ger 
many's  unquestioned  superiority  in  her  army, 
her  navy  could  also  be  brought  to  a  perfection 
where  she  could  smash  England  and  so  remove 
the  only  great  obstacle  to  her  universal  expan 
sion  and  power.  The  tragedy  of  such  a  con 
ception  is  that  the  day  was  not  distant  when 
this  young  man  would  have  the  power  as  the 
successor  of  his  father  to  attempt  this  appalling 
task.  An  Austrian  Archduke  was  killed  by  a 
student  and  the  aged  Emperor  sent  a  note  to 
Serbia,  because  this  student  was  a  Serbian, 
giving  that  little  kingdom  twelve  hours  in  which 
to  surrender  her  sovereignty  or  be  destroyed. 
We  have  now  been  three  years  in  war  because 
of  that  note  and  because  it  was  followed  by  the 
[234J 


TRIBUTE   TO   SIR   H.    BEERBOHM   TREE 

German  Emperor's  declaration  of  war  against 
Russia  and  the  German  army's  invasion  and 
desolation  of  Belgium  and  part  of  France. 
The  other  day  the  German  Emperor  presented  to 
the  Hohenzollern  Museum  at  Berlin  the  pen 
with  which  he  signed  the  papers  that  brought 
on  the  war.  The  pen  with  which  the  aged 
Emperor  of  Austria  signed  the  manifesto  to 
Serbia,  and  this  pen  of  the  Kaiser  dripped  not 
with  ink  but  with  blood.  According  to  a  recent 
statement  there  have  already  died  in  this  war, 
killed  in  battle,  by  wounds  and  starvation  and 
privations,  as  many  people  as  constitute  the 
population  of  Great  Britain.  To  bring  that 
statement  home,  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Mass 
achusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois 
and  Indiana,  would  have  to  be  swept  off  the 
face  of  the  earth  to  equal  this  holocaust. 

This  war  must  end  only  when  no  man  can 
ever  again  have  the  power  to  plunge  his  country 
and  the  world  into  war.  It  must  be  so  ended 
that  no  class  can  ever  be  so  entrenched  in  au 
thority  that  they  have  the  same  power.  This 
world  must  be  made  a  place  where  men  and 
women  can  lawfully  live  and  breathe  and  move 
and  have  their  being  in  peace.  When  that 
time  comes,  if  Providence  shall  give  us  another 
Shakespeare,  the  finest  literature  of  the  world 
will  be  commonplace  compared  to  the  creations 
[2351 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

of  his  genius.  The  stage  then  and  forever  after 
will  become  a  great  university  teaching  the 
triumph  of  liberty  through  the  most  ennobling 
sacrifices  and  heroic  deeds  and  thoughts.  We 
wish  that  peace  and  its  interpreter  may  come 
soon  enough  for  our  friend  to  lead  in  the  pres 
entation  of  these  plays. 

As  I  look  back  over  sixty  years  of  intense 
activities  and  more  than  seventy-five  years  of 
easy  recollections,  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  grasp 
the  changes  and  revolutions  of  the  period.  I 
was  born  and  lived  in  the  village  of  Peekskill- 
on-the-Hudson,  forty  miles  from  New  York. 
It  was  during  the  Revolutionary  War  on  the 
borders  of  that  neutral  ground  where  the 
partisans  of  both  sides  mercilessly  raided  each 
other's  farms  and  were  in  perpetual  battle. 
Peekskill  was  far  enough  from  New  York  in 
my  boyhood  to  have  a  population  composed 
almost  exclusively^  of  Revolutionary  families. 
There  had  been  .Bttle  immigration  from  the 
outside.  The  passions  of  that  war  were  still 
intense.  There  were  enough  Revolutionary 
soldiers  to  fill  the  platform  on  the  Fourth  of 
July.  On  that  day  the  war  was  fought  over 
by  the  orator,  the  reader  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  the  veterans  of  the  Con 
tinental  Army,  and  we  boys  danced  around 
the  bonfires  singing,  "Fi-fo-fum,  I  smell  the 
blood  of  an  Englishman,  dead  or  alive  I  will 
have  some." 

[236] 


TRIBUTE   TO    SIR   H.    BEERBOHM   TREE 

For  more .  than  a  generation  the  politician 
found  twisting  the  tail  of  the  British  Lion  and 
fighting  over  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  was 
both  popular  and  patriotic.  It  is  within  quite 
recent  memory  when  a  man  was  elected  a 
Congressman  and  reached  the  Vice-Presidency 
of  the  United  States,  whose  entire  oratorical 
stock  in  trade  was  the  war  of  the  revolution 
as  yet  unsettled.  The  age  of  miracles  has 
returned.  President  Wilson's  speech  before 
Congress,  one  of  the  noblest  utterances  of  our 
statesmen,  has  placed  the  United  States  in  the 
family  of  nations  upon  the  eternal  basis  of 
humanity  and  liberty.  The  question,  what  this 
dreadful  war  has  accomplished  or  will  accom 
plish,  is  partly  answered.  The  English  speak 
ing  peoples  of  the  world,  of  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain  and  the  self-governing  Colonies 
of  Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  South 
Africa,  are  one  in  an  alliance  for  the  same  ideals. 
Representatives  of  them  all  joined  in  singing 
"The  Star  Spangled  Banner"  in  the  old  Cathe 
dral  of  St.  Paul  in  London.  The  Union  Jack 
and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  entwined  above 
the  House  of  Parliament  when  the  United 
States  entered  the  war.  In  our  own  country 
the  Allied  flags  float  from  the  Capitol  and 
White  House  at  Washington  and  all  over  the 
land.  Old  Peekskill  in  our  new  birth  of  free 
dom  has  forgotten  its  inherited  animosities, 
and  from  the  ancient  oak  on  Academy  Hill, 

[237] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

from  which  swung  a  British  spy  a  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  years  ago,  to  the  Hudson  River 
are  intermingled  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  the 
Union  Jack  and  the  Tricolor  of  France. 

We  all  believe  that  those  who  have  gone 
before  are  deeply  interested  in  the  people  and 
the  things  they  loved  on  earth.  It  is  a  wonder 
ful  Parliament  which  is  watching  this  titanic 
battle.  There  are  George  Washington  and 
George  III,  and  Chatham  and  Burke,  who 
were  our  friends,  and  Napoleon  and  Bis 
marck.  Napoleon  is  saying  to  the  German 
statesman,  "When  I  predicted  that  Europe 
would  be  either  Republican  or  Cossack,  I 
should  have  said,  it  will  be  either  Prussian  or 
Republican.  You  are  unchanged  but  the  Cos 
sack  has  become  a  Democrat."  Washington, 
Chatham  and  Burke  are  rejoicing  that  the 
union  which  they  desired,  and  which  was  im 
possible  a  century  ago,  by  the  success  of  liberal 
institutions  in  the  United  States  reacting  upon 
the  Mother  Country  and  its  colonies  extending 
around  the  earth,  has  belted  the  globe  with 
English  speaking  nations  each  working  out  its 
own  destiny  and  all  united  in  promoting  that 
higher  civilization  in  which  there  is  free  growth 
of  humanity  and  liberty. 


238] 


Speech  at  a  Special  Meeting  of  the  Union 
League  Club  of  New  York,  May  24,  1917, 
in  Memory  of  Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate. 

Hon.  Charles  E.  Hughes,  President  of  the 
Club,  in  introducing  Mr.  Depew  said,  "It  is 
now  my  great  privilege  to  present  to  the  Club — 
not  that  he  needs  introduction — one  whom  we 
always  delight  to  hear,  in  whose  continued 
vigorous  youth  we  take  the  greatest  satisfac 
tion — always  optimistic,  always  eloquent — our 
friend,  Chauncey  M.  Depew!"  (Applause.) 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Members: 

Language  is  inadequate  to  measure  or  de 
scribe  the  time  in  which  we  live.  Events  of 
incalculable  importance  to  humanity  and  to 
government  happen  over  night.  The  record 
of  a  month  surpasses  in  its  consequences  the 
orderly  processes  of  centuries. 

I  have  just  returned  from  Washington  where 
Congress  is  dealing  with  appropriations  which 
stagger  the  imagination  and  concentration  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  few  for  efficiency  in 
war  never  before  contemplated.  The  extraor 
dinary  has  become  the  usual  in  our  thoughts 
and  experiences. 

It  is  only  a  subject  of  importance  which 
justifies  a  meeting  under  these  conditions.  We 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

have  had  many  memorable  celebrations  in  this 
historic  house.  They  have  been  in  honor 
of  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  of  Generals 
immortalized  by  great  victories,  and  Governors 
of  States  and  diplomats  of  international  renown. 
But  we  are  met  here  to-night  to  pay  our  tribute, 
not  only  of  respect  and  admiration,  but 
also  of  affection  for  a  fellow  member  and  a 
former  President  of  our  Club,  Joseph  H. 
Choate,  who  in  his  long  and  distinguished  career 
held  but  one  great  office,  and  that  late  in  life, 
but  who  when  he  died  had  a  position  which  in  a 
great  and  enlightened  democracy  is  superior 
to  any  office — he  was  our  first  and  foremost 
citizen. 

At  a  dinner  given  him  last  January  in  this 
Club,  on  the  occasion  of  his  eighty-fifth  birth 
day,  it  was  interesting  to  note  in  his  speech 
what  recollections  were  for  him  the  most  inter 
esting.  They  were,  his  first  speech  in  a  presi 
dential  canvass,  and  his  first  fee  as  a  young 
lawyer.  Those  who  were  privileged  to  hear 
him  will  recall  with  what  charming  pictur- 
esqueness  he  told  of  that  first  case,  of  his  fee  of 
two  one  dollar  gold  pieces,  and  of  the  recovery 
of  one  of  them  over  fifty  years  afterwards 
from  the  descendants  of  a  young  friend  with 
whom  he  had  divided  his  two  dollars.  The 
other  reminiscence  which  he  dwelt  upon  with 
equal  picturesqueness  was  his  speech  made 
in  1856  for  Fremont  for  President.  He  had 

[2401 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

preserved  the  poster  and  pointed  with  pride 
to  the  announcement  that  addresses  should 
be  given  by  Joseph  H  Choate  and  James  C. 
Carter.  Both  of  them  were  young  lawyers, 
recently  arrived  in  New  York  to  make  their 
careers  and  their  fortunes.  What  wonderful 
careers  have  been  won  in  that  sixty  years. 
Choate  easily  had  become  the  head  of  the  Bar 
and  of  international  fame,  while  his  tribute 
to  Carter,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  condensed 
in  one  sentence  a  wonderful  eulogy,  when  he 
said:  "The  death  of  James  C.  Carter  made 
room  for  a  thousand  lawyers/' 

That  he  spoke  in  1856  for  Fremont  was 
specially  interesting  to  me,  because  I,  too, 
just  out  of  college,  canvassed  the  country  in 
the  same  cause.  Both  Choate  and  I  spoke 
also  for  Hughes  in  the  recent  campaign.  It  is 
the  only  record  I  think  of  ardent  orators  of 
1856  after  sixty  years  still  as  ardent  and  quite 
as  vigorous  upon  the  platform  for  their  party 
and  its  candidate. 

As  President  of  the  New  York  State  Consti 
tutional  Convention,  Mr.  Choate  revealed 
a  capacity  for  managing  a  Legislative  body 
and  a  constructive  statesmanship  in  preparing 
the  fundamentals  of  government  in  a  written 
constitution  which  demonstrated  the  highest 
statesmanship.  If  he  had  spent  most  of  his 
life  in  Congress,  he  would  have  ranked  among 
the  first  statesmen  to  whom  we  owe  the  devel- 

[241] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

opment  of  our  institution.  But  Mr.  Choate 
was  of  too  independent  a  mind,  and  too  re 
bellious  a  spirit,  to  succeed  to  office  in  strict 
party  government.  He  was  a  party  man,  but 
never  a  partizan.  The  organization  always 
feared  him,  and  organization  leaders  knew  they 
could  not  control  him,  but  his  marvelous 
faculty  in  presenting  the  principles  and  policies 
in  which  he  believed  brought  the  leaders  in 
stantly  to  him  to  make  the  keynote  speech 
after  they  had  built  their  platform  and  nom 
inated  their  candidates.  But  if  their  platform 
and  candidates  did  not  meet  his  approval  he 
would  have  none  of  either.  He  was  not  a  re 
forming  crank  nor  a  cranky  reformer,  far 
from  either.  He  recognized  that  there  must 
be  a  larger  surrender  of  individual  opinions  to 
make  an  organization,  but  when  he  distrusted 
the  leaders  or  the  candidates,  or  the  purposes 
of  the  organization,  he  was  instantly  in  revolt. 
Those  who  were  closely  associated  with  him 
at  the  Bar  can  speak  more  intimately  of  his 
career  as  a  lawyer,  and  yet  I  had  an  opportunity 
of  knowing  his  supreme  ability  in  another  way. 
I  was  General  Counsel  of  a  great  corporation 
for  many  years.  The  General  Counsel  as  a 
rule  is  always  near  or  within  call  of  the 
Executive.  If  the  Executive  amounts  to 
much,  he  must  be  one  of  those  masterful 
men  who,  in  accomplishing  his  will  and 
what  he  believes  necessary  for  the  corpo- 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

ration  of  which  he  is  chief,  is  rebellious  and 
defiant  of  restraint.  It  is  the  General  Counsel's 
business  to  keep  the  Executive  from  violating 
the  law.  So  the  General  Counsel  in  administer 
ing  legal  matters  retains  members  of  the  Bar 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  He  thus  has 
unusual  opportunities  to  become  familiar  with 
their  abilities  and  equipment.  The  two  great 
est  lawyers  I  ever  met  under  these  conditions 
were  William  M.  Evarts  and  Joseph  H.  Choate. 
They  were  partners,  but  both  extraordinary 
in  their  knowledge  of  the  law,  in  their  singular 
power  of  discernment  and  discrimination  and 
in  their  wonderful  faculty  of  so  clarifying  their 
case  that  it  commanded  the  assent  of  the  court 
and  the  conviction  of  the  jury.  In  one  of  the 
most  famous  of  will  cases,  after  it  had  dragged 
its  weary  length  along  for  over  two  years,  Mr. 
Choate  was  invited  to  take  charge  and  in  twenty 
days  had  broken  down  and  destroyed  the  whole 
fabric  so  long  elaborately  and  skillfully  built 
by  the  contestants. 

In  another  case,  certain  transactions  were 
continued  for  a  number  of  years  with  a  large 
firm,  the  members  of  which  retired  and  passed 
the  business  over  to  their  managers,  with  whom 
the  same  transactions  and  customers  continued. 
The  bankruptcy  of  a  principal  led  the  receiver 
to., bring  an  action  against  the  members  of  the 
olcT*firm  on  account  of  what  occurred  during 
their  period,  and  another  action  against  the 
[2431 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

new  firm  for  the  transactions  which  continued 
with  them.  The  facts  were  precisely  the  same 
and  the  principles  governing  them  the  same 
and  the  amount  involved  was  very  large.  Mr. 
Choate  represented  part  of  the  divided  firm  and 
some  very  excellent  lawyers  the  other  part. 
Mr.  Choate  won  his  case,  the  other  part  lost. 
Then  when  both  came  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Choate  won  for  both. 
There  never  was  a  more  remarkable  partner 
ship  than  William  M.  Evarts  and  Joseph  H. 
Choate.  Evarts  was  long  the  leader  of  the 
American  Bar,  and  Mr.  Choate  by  general  con 
sent  succeeded  him.  Mr.  Evarts  was  riot  only 
our  greatest  lawyer,  but  he  was  also  our  keenest 
wit.  Mr.  Choate,  in  addition  to  his  wonderful 
legal  ability,  was  also  a  wit  and  a  humorist  of  the 
first  order.  He  gave  me  a  delightful  account 
of  his  farewell  to  Mr.  Evarts  when  he  went  to 
Great  Britain  as  Ambassador.  Mr.  Evarts 
had  been  ill  and  confined  to  his  bed  for  a  long 
time  and  was  gradually  fading  away.  Evarts 
said  to  Choate,  "I  am  delighted  at  your  ap 
pointment.  You  have  gained  all  the  distinc 
tion  possible  in  our  profession.  You  are 
eminently  fitted  for  this  great  place."  Choate 
answered,  "My  only  regret  is  leaving  you  after 
more  than  forty  years  of  close  association, 
without  any  differences  or  frictions,  but  when 
I  come  back  I  hope  you  will  be  restored  to  health 
and  we  shall  resume  together  our  old  activities." 

[244] 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

"No,  Choate,"  said  Evarts,  "I  can  never  leave 
this  room.  I  know  I  am  a  burden  because  of 
my  helpless  and  hopeless  condition.  I  feel 
like  the  schoolboy  who  wrote  home  to  his 
mother  a  letter  of  twenty  pages,  and  then  added 
at  the  end,  'P.  S. — Dear  Mother,  please  excuse 
my  longevity/ ': 

The  Benchers  of  the  Inner  Temple  are  the 
most  venerable  and  the  most  authoritative 
body  in  Great  Britain.  One  or  two  of  the 
lawyers  of  the  Colonial  period,  who  emigrated 
to  America,  were  Benchers,  but  since  the 
formation  of  the  Republic,  no  American  lawyer 
had  been  admitted  to  this  distinction.  But 
after  Mr.  Choate  had  been  Ambassador  for 
several  years,  there  was  a  new  tie  and  a  most 
unusual  one  created  between  the  old  country 
and  the  new.  Mr.  Choate  had  so  impressed 
the  judges  and  the  lawyers  of  England  that  he 
was  unanimously  elected  a  Bencher  of  the  Inner 
Temple.  Coincident  with  the  tributes  to  his 
memory,  which  are  paid  by  his  countrymen,  are 
other  tributes  equally  sincere,  eloquent  and 
convincing,  from  his  brethren  in  this  great  and 
powerful  company  of  the  law,  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic. 

Many  years  ago  Mr.  Choate  was  elected 
President  of  the  New  England  Society  in  New 
York,  and  continuously  re-elected.  After  a 
little,  his  annual  address  became  an  event 
for  its  wit,  humor  and  audacity.  Its  free  hand- 

[2451 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

ling  of  important  personages  and  current 
questions  made  an  opportunity  to  attend  the 
New  England  dinner  the  most  sought  for  priv 
ilege  of  the  year.  The  occasion  grew  into 
national  importance;  men  of  the  highest  dis 
tinction  and  position  gladly  accepted  invita 
tions;  it  was  a  free  platform,  and  the  broadest 
discussion  was  invited,  providing  it  was  not  too 
long.  Sumner  came  there  with  his  ponderous 
periods  and  stately  eloquence,  and  Roscoe 
Conkling  was  there  at  his  best.  So  were 
Presidents  and  ex-Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  and  with  them  great  journalists  and 
educators,  but  on  these  occasions,  some  of 
which  were  historic,  the  master  mind  was  easily 
Joseph  H.  Choate. 

Mr.  Choate  believed  with  me  that  the  mind 
is  fresher  and  more  capable  of  grasping  the 
questions  arising  in  one's  vocation  or  profession, 
if  there  is  relief  in  some  other  direction.  We 
both  found  that  in  after-dinner  speaking. 
For  over  forty  years,  many  times  during  the 
season,  we  were  on  the  same  platform.  I  was 
a  speaker  with  him  at  both  the  Irish  and  Scotch 
annual  dinners,  where  his  wit  and  audacity 
so  amused  and  offended.  When  he  suggested 
at  the  St.  Patrick's  Society,  at  a  time  when 
Home  Rule  had  failed  in  Parliament  and  every 
office  in  New  York  was  held  by  an  Irishman, 
that  the  absence  of  governing  talent  from  the 
other  side  had  probably  led  to  the  failure  of 

[246] 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

Home  Rule  while  that  same  talent  transferred 
over  here  governed  us  absolutely,  and  that  if 
they  would  go  back  home  their  abilities  would 
undoubtedly  secure  the  independence  of  Ireland 
and  give  the  native  Americans  an  opportunity 
to  govern  themselves,  he  did  not  mean  to  offend, 
but  the  whimsical  and  mischievous  audacity 
of  his  humor  was  so  strong,  and  his  enjoyment 
of  it  so  great,  that  he  did  not  care  if  objectors 
became  angry. 

So  at  a  Scotch  banquet,  I  sat  next  to  the 
Scotch  Chieftain,  the  Marquis  of  Aberdeen, 
then  Governor  General  of  Canada,  a  man  of 
the  highest  distinction  in  public  life  and  of 
family,  who  was  the  guest  of  honor.  He  was 
in  the  full  regalia  of  his  Highland  Clan.  Choate 
asked  me  if  his  legs  were  bare.  After  investi 
gation,  I  said,  "Yes."  When  it  became  Mr. 
Choate's  turn  to  speak,  he  could  not  resist  this 
same  whimsical,  mischievous  and  audacious 
humor.  He  said,  "If  I  had  known  that  our 
distinguished  friend  was  coming  here  to-night 
in  the  costume  of  his  Clan,  I  would  have  left 
my  trousers  at  home." 

This  mischievous  humor  made  him  the  most 
delightful  of  companions  at  any  function.  I 
have  been  a  member  with  him  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  a  private  dinner  club. 
Its  confidences  were  those  of  a  family  and  there 
was  no  publicity  whatever.  The  members  were 
free  to  give  their  views  frankly  on  all  subjects 

[247] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  in  the  exchange  of  opinions  and  expe 
riences  Choate's  contributions,  if  permitted 
to  be  published,  would  be  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  wit  and  wisdom.  At  the  dinners  given 
me,  purely  private  ones,  by  my  wife  on  my 
birthday,  Mr.  Choate's  toast  and  speech  in 
that  admirable  combination  of  praise  and  mis 
chief  of  which  he  was  master  was  always  the 
feature  of  the  evening.  On  one  occasion  it 
had  been  suggested  by  the  hostess  to  the  archi 
tect  of  the  table  that  it  would  be  a  delicate 
compliment  if  he  would  present  the  guest,  that 
is  myself,  as  Cicero  in  a  miniature  statuette  de 
livering  an  oration.  The  architect  from  a  photo 
graph  and  personal  acquaintance  made  an  excel 
lent  likeness,  but  as  his  familiarity  with  Cicero 
was  not  with  history,  but  with  Romans  on  the 
stage  the  figure  did  not  have  the  toga  of  a 
Senator,  but  the  belt  and  sword  of  a  gladiator 
of  exaggerated  muscular  development.  Charles 
Lamb  never  did  anything  more  delicious  in  its 
humor,  more  audacious  or  mischievous  than 
Mr.  Choate's  picture  of  what  would  happen 
to  the  octogenarian  orator  as  a  gladiator. 

I  have  been  going  to  Europe  for  half  a  century 
and  thrown  in  intimate  contact  with  our 
representatives  abroad.  We  have  been  pecu 
liarly  happy  in  our  ministers  and  Ambassadors 
to  Great  Britain.  I  saw  much  of  Mr.  Choate 
while  he  was  in  London  and  his  popularity  with 
both  government  and  society  was  beyond  that 

[248] 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

of  the  representative  of  any  other  country. 
Choate  was  the  finest  flower  of  democracy.  He 
had  no  comprehension  or  respect  for  distinc 
tions  founded  only  upon  family  or  pedigree. 
His  easy  familiarity  with  great  personages 
never  offended.  He  was  accepted  from  the 
King  to  the  commoner  as  an  equal.  King 
Edward,  who  was  one  of  the  most  appreciative 
and  capable  of  sovereigns,  delighted  in  Mr. 
Choate.  In  England  political  and  social  life 
are  closely  intermingled.  Politics  and  govern 
ment  are  largely  run  at  the  week-end  parties 
in  the  country,  and  also  those  parties  are  the 
best  part  of  the  social  life  of  Great  Britain.  The 
epigrams  and  stories  from  Parliament  are  large 
contributors  to  conversation  at  these  gather 
ings.  He  had  not  been  long  there  before  he  was 
more  quoted  than  anybody,  and  his  wit  and 
wisdom  repeated  all  over  the  land.  His  speeches 
at  universities,  on  the  platform,  and  especially 
at  great  dinners  presented  the  rare  combination 
seldom  found  in  a  speaker,  of  profound  thought, 
picturesquely  expressed  and  illuminated  by  that 
light  touch  of  the  perfect  artist  which  makes 
a  disagreeable  truth  palatable. 

Mr.  Choate  was  always  natural.  In  court, 
addressing  the  jury  or  arguing  before  the  judges 
in  their  robes,  he  was  the  same  masterful, 
genial,  humorous  and  irresistible  Choate.  This 
characteristic  differentiated  him  from  his  col 
leagues  as  an  ambassador.  They  assumed 

[249] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

court  manners  with  their  elaborate  court  uni 
forms,  while  he  was  the  cultured,  dignified  but 
easy  going  citizen. 

Centuries  pass  with  their  revolutions  in 
government  and  exchange  of  power  from  the 
throne  to  the  people.  Great  Britain  has 
become  one  of  the  most  democratic  govern 
ments  in  the  world,  but  the  ceremonials  of  the 
Georges  and  Queen  Victoria  are  in  full  force. 
At  a  court  function  after  the  present  King  suc 
ceeded  his  father,  Edward  VII,  I  was  a  guest  at 
Buckingham  Palace.  As  usual  the  ambassadors 
in  their  uniforms  covered  with  gold,  and  the 
American  ambassador  in  a  plain  black  dress  suit 
stood  in  a  semi-circle  about  the  royal  family. 
Outside  this  circle  were  the  invited  guests.  The 
King  and  the  Queen  would  walk  around  the  am 
bassadorial  circle  and  greet  and  talk  with  each. 
In  the  interval  before  this  royal  march  began  to 
the  banquet,  Choate  stepped  out  of  the  ambassa 
dorial  semi-circle  and  went  over,  as  he  would 
have  done  at  home,  to  talk  with  the  host  and 
hostess,  and  soon  both  the  King  and  the  queen 
and  others  of  the  royal  family  were  gayly  enjoy 
ing  Choate 's  wit.  The  other  ambassadors  stand 
ing  stiffly  in  their  places  looked  horrified.  But 
their  horror  was  increased  when  Choate  singled 
me  out  of  the  crowd  and  saying,  "Chauncey, 
come  over  and  be  introduced  to  the  Queen," 
led  me  into  the  royal  circle  where  the  charming 
and  gracious  Queen  ignored  the  break  of 

[250] 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

traditional  usage  and  made  both  the  American 
ambassador  and  his  friend  feel  "just  as  if  we 
were  at  home." 

The  world  knew  little  of  the  valuable  work 
done  by  our  friend  through  his  membership 
of  public  institutions.  He  did  much  for  both 
our  great  museums  of  Art  and  of  Natural 
History,  and  the  Society  for  the  Blind  owes  its 
light-house  to  his  efforts  as  its  President.  He 
took  a  deep  interest  in  the  American  Indians, 
and  the  exploiters  and  rascals  who  are  always 
seeking  to  prey  upon  them  by  Congressional 
Legislation  found  in  him  an  alert,  resourceful 
and  successful  enemy. 

When  we,  who  knew  him  so  well,  have  passed 
away,  posterity  will  inquire,  "What  was  the 
secret  of  his  great  power?"  I  have  heard  most 
of  the  orators  of  my  time  of  this  and  other 
countries.  With  the  exception  of  Mr.  Glad 
stone,  Wendell  Phillips  and  Mr.  Choate,  I 
cannot  recall  any  who  had  that  elusive  and 
indefinable  quality  which,  beyond  the  argument 
or  its  setting,  beyond  the  logic  or  its  force, 
captured  audiences  and  juries,  which  even  pen 
etrated  and  swayed  the  calmer  judgment  of  the 
court. 

James  M.  Barrie  in  one  of  his  plays  presents 
a  masterful  woman  of  wonderful  ability  and 
genius,  who  makes  out  of  a  dull  husband  a 
success  in  politics  and  a  leader  in  Parliament. 
He  is  carried  away  by  the  flattery  which  comes 

[251] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

to  a  position  gained  by  his  eloquence  and  leaves 
his  wife  to  follow  a  society  belle.  His  success 
is  due  to  his  speeches,  all  of  which  are  written 
by  his  wife.  The  hard-headed  Scotch  brothers 
of  the  wife  discussed  how  it  was  possible  that 
the  other  lady  so  volatile  could  have  led  him 
away  from  so  superior  a  woman  as  their  sister. 
One  of  them  solved  the  problem  by  saying, 
"It  is  her  damn  charm."  When  to  that  charm 
is  added  genius,  the  combination  is  irresistible. 
I  have  been  present  when  Wendell  Phillips 
swayed  hostile  audiences  which  had  driven 
other  orators  of  superior  logic  from  the  platform 
because  they  fell  under  the  sway  of  the  mag 
netism  of  his  voice  and  manner.  So  Mr. 
Choate  won  victories  in  the  courts  where  other 
great  lawyers  failed  and  captured  audiences 
bored  by  other  speakers. 

Our  friend  two  years  ago  entered  upon  a  new 
career.  He  was  a  man  of  peace  and  had  devoted 
time  and  effort  for  the  peace  of  the  world.  He 
left  everything  to  go  as  Ambassador  to  The 
Hague  for  that  purpose,  and  was  amazed, 
although  he  did  not  comprehend  it  then,  at 
the  studied  opposition  of  the  German  represen 
tatives.  As  an  international  lawyer  of  great 
erudition  he  was  shocked  by  the  German 
Chancellor's  views  that  treaties  are  scraps  of 
paper  and  at  the  atrocities  in  Belgium  and 
France.  But  after  the  war  had  been  in  progress 
for  less  than  a  year  he  became  convinced  that 

[252] 


IN  MEMORY  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE 

it  was  a  battle  between  autocracy  and  democ 
racy  in  which  the  United  States  was  vitally 
interested.  He  believed  that  if  the  Allies  were 
defeated,  Germany  would  then  possess  the 
resources  of  France,  Great  Britain  would  be 
helpless  and  the  United  States  the  next  victim 
of  ruthlessness  and  spoliation.  He  was  the 
first  of  our  public  men  to  preach  preparedness 
and  to  insist  upon  our  entrance  into  the  war. 
Each  new  outrage  upon  our  citizens  drew  from 
him  a  sterner  and  more  emphatic  declaration 
of  our  duty  to  freedom,  humanity  and  the  pres 
ervation  of  our  own  liberty.  He  hailed  with 
approval  and  unstinted  praise  President  Wil 
son's  address  to  Congress  for  an  immediate 
declaration  of  war  against  Germany,  and  with 
that  magnanimity,  which  was  his  characteris 
tic,  he  withdrew  the  criticisms  he  had  made 
against  the  President,  saying,  "He  is  right 
now.  I  can  quite  believe  he  was  right  all  the 
time  and  only  waiting  for  the  opportune  hour." 
At  eighty-five  years  of  age  he  was  anxiously 
seeking  where  and  how  he  might  serve  his 
country.  When  the  Commissioners  were  sent 
from  France  and  Great  Britain  he  saw  his 
opportunity  and  grasped  and  fulfilled  its  duties, 
though  they  were  far  beyond  his  strength.  The 
last  five  days  of  his  life  will  form  an  inspiring 
chapter  in  American  history.  This  venerable 
American  citizen,  known  and  loved  on  both 
sides  of  the  ocean,  saw  the  great  service  he 
[253] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

could  perform  in  cementing  the  ties  between 
the  United  States,  France  and  Great  Britain, 
so  recently  formed.     He  was  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  in  the  ceremonies  on  which  rested 
the  eyes  of  the  whole  world,  for  those  ceremonies 
were  to  test  the  sincerity  of  the  alliance.    Thurs 
day  he  met  the  French,  Joffre,  the  great  soldier, 
and  Viviani,  statesman  and  orator;  rode  with 
them  through  the  crowded  streets  and  avenues 
and  assisted  in  their  entertainment  in  the  eve 
ning.    Friday  he  accompanied  them  to  the  meet 
ing  with  the  merchants  of  New  York,  where  his 
speech    compared   favorably   with   the  impas 
sioned  eloquence  of  the  French  orator.     Friday 
he  also  met  and  received  England's  veteran 
and  most  accomplished  statesman,  Mr.  Balfour, 
spoke  to  him  on  behalf  of  the  American  people 
at  the  City  Hall  and  accompanied  him  through 
the   crowded   streets.     Again   in   the   evening 
at  a  memorable  banquet  given  by  the  Mayor 
of  New  York,  where  were  gathered  representa 
tive  men  from   all   parts   of   the   country,   in 
pathetic  and  stirring  eloquence  he  expressed 
his  delight  at  this  union  of  English  speaking 
peoples  and  this  renewal  of  our  old  alliance 
with  France  for  liberty  and  humanity,  and  then 
with  that  practical  touch  which  always  charac 
terized  his  efforts,  he  put  his  fatherly  hand  on 
Colonel   Roosevelt    and    said,    "If    our    most 
distinguished  and  best  known  citizen  is  willing 
to  give  the  inspiration  of  his  presence  in  Europe, 
[254] 


IN   MEMORY   OF   HON.    JOSEPH   H.    CHOATE 

and  the  possible  sacrifice  of  his  life  to  the  cause, 
let  him  go."  In  advocating  our  government 
sending  troops  to  France,  he  condensed  the 
sentiment  in  a  shout,  " Hurry  up!" 

Saturday  he  escorted  these  great  Commis 
sions  to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  where  he 
again  assured  them  that  the  enterprises,  com 
merce  and  trade,  represented  in  that  venerable 
body  were  all  pledged  to  victory. 

On  Sunday  he  went  with  the  representatives 
of  Great  Britain  to  the  cathedral  of  St.  John  the 
Divine.  He  regarded  that  solemn  service  as 
a  consecration  of  the  alliance  as  the  National 
Anthems  were  followed  by  the  prayer  and  praise 
and  hope  of  the  Christian  Doxology.  There 
were  angel  voices  mingled  with  those  of  the 
cathedral  choir,  the  great  soul  of  Mr.  Choate 
had  been  summoned  and  the  gates  of  Heaven 
were  ajar.  Dying  a  few  hours  afterwards  he  said, 
'''  This  is  the  end."  The  end,  yes,  of  his  earthly 
life  only.  His  country  and  his  countrymen  will 
always  cherish  as  an  inspiration  for  succeeding 
generations  a  life  so  useful,  so  full  and  so  com 
plete  and  a  death  preeminently  in  the  service 
of  his  country,  for  democracy  and  for  liberty. 
(Prolonged  applause.) 


255 


An  Appreciation  of  General  James  W.  Husted 
at  the  Unveiling  of  the  Husted  Memorial 
in  Depew  Park,  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  4, 
1917. 

The  tribute  we  are  paying  our  old  friend, 
General  Husted,  is  eminently  deserved.  He  did 
great  service  during  his  life  for  our  village  and 
county  and  our  State.  My  own  relations  with 
him  were  close  and  intimate  for  forty  years. 
I  was  prepared  for  college  at  the  Peekskill 
Academy  and  entered  Yale  as  a  freshman  in 
1852,  sixty-five  years  ago. 

Peekskill,  at  that  time,  was  a  small  village 
and  my  knowledge  of  the  world  was  confined 
to  what  happened  within  its  boundaries.  No 
greener  or  fresher  young  man  ever  appeared  on 
the  college  campus.  My  origin  was  as  evident 
as  is  the  countryman  who  appears  in  the  market 
place  with  hay  seeds  on  his  back  and  a  clover 
blossom  in  his  buttonhole.  While  I  was 
selecting,  as  was  the  custom,  furniture  for  my 
rooms  from  the  left-off  results  of  senior  use, 
I  was  cheered  and  relieved  by  a  cordial  greeting 
from  Husted.  He  was  then  a  junior,  and  thor 
oughly  up-to-date  in  appearance  and  manner. 
He  said,  "  Hello,  Depew,  I'm  from  Bedford, 
Westchester  County.  You're  from  Peekskill. 
Let  me  help  you."  That  expression  was  char 
acteristic  of  General  Husted's  whole  career. 
[256] 


THE   HUSTED   MEMORIAL 

His  life  and  activities  were  largely  made  of 
helping  others.  During  the  remainder  of  his 
two  years,  our  friendship  grew  and  we  were  as 
near  as  it  was  possible  to  be,  with  the  wide 
gulf  that  separates  the  lower  from  the  upper 
classes. 

After  I  graduated  and  returned  to  Peekskill, 
I  persuaded  Husted,  who  was  then  teaching, 
to  accept  a  tutorship  in  the  Peekskill  Academy 
and  study  law  with  me  in  the  office  of  Edward 
Wells. 

Mr.  Wells  was  more  than  a  lawyer  and  had 
a  sort  of  law  school  in  his  office.  Husted's 
interests  arid  ambitions  were  more  political 
than  legal.  He  soon  became  the  ablest  and 
most  trusted  lieutenant  of  Judge  William  H. 
Robertson,  our  County  Leader.  Immediately 
after  admission  to  the  bar,  he  was  elected  School 
Commissioner  for  the  Third  Assembly  District 
of  Westchester  and  remained  in  office  almost 
continuously,  local  or  state,  from  that  time  until 
his  death. 

He  was,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
often  a  member  and  always  a  trusted  adviser 
of  the  State  Committee.  His  distinction  was  in 
a  deliberative  body;  whether  it  was  a  political 
convention  or  the  State  Legislature,  in  them  he 
was  a  dominant  figure.  He  knew  instinctively 
the  temper  of  a  legislative  body.  If  it  is  true, 
that  women  are  "  uncertain,  coy  and  hard  to 
please/'  the  Legislature  is  always  feminine. 
[257] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

There  are  times  when  it  will  turn  down  any 
measure,  no  matter  how  greatly  needed,  and  at 
other  tunes,  when  it  will  pass  almost  anything, 
good  or  bad.  In  his  twenty- three  years  in  our 
State  Assembly,  Husted  came  to  have  charge 
of  public  bills  coming  from  the  Governor  or  the 
State  Departments;  while  others  failed  in  these 
measures  or  had  them  amended  out  of  recog 
nition,  the  General  invariably  succeeded.  He 
had  a  faculty  without  oratory  or  rhetoric  of  so 
condensing  and  clearly  stating  the  object  of 
the  measure  that  it  carried  conviction.  He  was 
the  most  complete  master  of  parliamentary  law 
and  its  subtle  distinctions  and  exceptions  that 
I  have  ever  known.  As  a  presiding  officer, 
he  had  a  rare  faculty  of  instantaneously  deciding 
a  point  of  order,  and  appeals  from  his  decisions 
always  failed.  He  was  one  of  the  very  few 
speakers,  either  of  Congress  or  of  our  State 
Legislature,  who  could  make  the  gavel  talk. 
Most  presiding  officers  are  perpetually  banging 
the  desk  with  very  little  results;  while  the  first 
rap  of  Husted' s  gavel  brought  the  house  to 
attention  and  order.  In  most  of  his  many  cam 
paigns  I  was  present  when  he  gave  enthusiasm 
and  inspiration  to  his  lieutenants  from  every 
part  of  his  district.  His  address  always  closed 
with  General  Grant's  famous  remark,  "Let 
no  guilty  man  escape." 

During  his  long  service  in  our  Legislature, 
he  was  always  the  confidant  of  the  Governor, 
[258] 


THE   HUSTED   MEMORIAL 

whether  the  Executive  was  of  his  own  party  or 
not.  He  was  very  broad-minded  and  would 
never  join  in  any  scheme  to  cripple  the  efficiency 
of  an  opposition  state  administration  in  order 
to  put  the  Governor  in  a  hole.  He  was  specially 
trusted  by  Governor  Tilden,  and  was  his  great 
aid  in  carrying  his  reform  measures  through  the 
Legislature. 

The  General  was  an  enthusiastic  sportsman. 
He  loved  the  woods  and  the  streams.  The 
Adirondacks  were  rapidly  disappearing  into 
private  ownership  and  the  forests  being  de 
stroyed  in  the  most  wasteful  manner  by  con 
tractors  and  timber  thieves.  The  Adiron 
dacks  were  the  General's  favorite  recreation 
grounds.  He  was  intimate  with  all  the  guides 
and  knew  every  stream  in  the  wilderness.  The 
State  is  largely  indebted  to  him  for  the  meas 
ures  which  have  gone  so  far  in  protecting  this 
natural  park  and  health  resort,  and  putting  it 
into  the  hands  of  the  State  for  the  recreation 
and  health  of  our  people. 

It  was  an  early  romance  which  decided 
the  permanent  residence  of  General  Husted 
in  Peekskill.  My  mother  was  fond  of  giving 
young  people  parties,  which  at  that  time 
were  called  soirees.  At  one  of  the  soirees 
Husted  met  a  young  lady  just  out  in  her 
first  season  and  one  of  the  prettiest  and  most 
charming  girls  of  our  community,  Miss  Helen 
Southard.  He  instantly  fell  madly  in  love  with 
[  259  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

her  and  the  courtship  ended  in  a  happy  marriage 
and  the  settlement  of  the  young  people  here. 
The  next  week  after  the  soire*e,  the  Highland 
Democrat  had  an  unsigned  poem  addressed 
to  "The  Girl  I  Met  at  the  SoirSe."  The  poem 
was  widely  read  and  commented  upon  in  our 
village.  It  undoubtedly  had  its  effect  in  help 
ing  the  General  to  success  in  his  courtship. 

Thirty  years  afterwards,  when  we  were 
reminiscing  at  a  National  Convention,  I  said: 
"By  the  way,  do  you  remember  the  poem  you 
printed  in  the  Highland  Democrat  long  ago, 
called  'The  Girl  I  Met  at  the  Soire'e?' '  As  an 
illustration,  both  of  his  memory  and  of  the 
value  he  attached  to  his  early  and  successful 
message  of  love,  he  at  once  recited  it  without 
omitting  a  word. 

Peekskill  honors  itself  in  erecting  this  monu 
ment  to  General  Husted.  The  interests  of  our 
town  and  county  were  always  foremost  in  his 
thought  and  activity.  His  name  is  indissolubly 
connected  with  the  progress  and  development  of 
our  State.  The  list  is  very  long  of  the  young 
men  whom  he  placed  in  positions  and  gave  a 
start  in  life  in  governmental  and  state  service 
and  private  employment. 

His  death  came  dramatically  while  a  delegate 
to  a  National  Convention;  or  rather  shortly 
after  because  of  his  exertions  there.  He  was  a 
politician  of  wonderful  skill  and  knowledge  of 
popular  currents  and  shifting  opinions.  He  was 
[2601 


THE   HUSTED   MEMORIAL 

a  statesman  who  with  rare  opportunities  and 
long  service  did  much  for  our  State  and  country. 
He  was  the  most  genial,  companionable  and 
lovable  of  men.  Few  men  in  public  life  ever 
had  so  many  and  devoted  personal  friends. 


[261] 


Speech  to  the  Drafted  Men  of  Tarrytown,  N. 
Y.,  Who  were  leaving  for  Camp,  September 
10,  1917. 

My  Friends: 

I  am  here  on  behalf  of  your  neighbors  and 
friends  to  bid  you  farewell  and  Godspeed  upon 
the  glorious  and  patriotic  mission  upon  which 
you  have  entered.  I  am  reminded  of  a  similar 
scene  in  the  northern  part  of  this  old  county, 
fifty-five  years  ago.  A  company  of  young  men 
had  enlisted  in  the  army  of  the  Union.  They 
were  all  in  the  early  twenties  and  full  of  pluck 
and  determination.  They  knew  perfectly  well 
what  they  were  fighting  for.  It  was  to  preserve 
the  Union  of  the  States  which  make  up 
the  American  republic.  They  knew  that  in 
the  preservation  of  that  republic  was  the  hope 
and  the  future  for  the  liberties  of  their  country. 
They  felt  that  no  sacrifice  was  too  great  for 
this  result.  They  were  part  of  the  volunteer 
force  which  had  been  called  by  President 
Lincoln,  and  they  sang  a  favorite  song  of  the 
volunteers,  "We  are  coining,  father  Abraham, 
three  hundred  thousand  more."  An  army 
which  knows  what  it  is  fighting  for,  and  is 
fighting  for  the  right,  is  invincible.  The 
battles  may  be  long  and  there  may  be  many 
hardships,  but  in  the  end  victory  is  certain. 
[2621 


SPEECH   TO    DRAFTED   MEN 

Our  allies  who  are  battling  in  Europe  know 
what  they  are  fighting  for.  The  Belgians  are 
struggling  to  regain  their  country  which  has 
been  devastated  and  plundered  as  no  land  ever 
was  in  civilized  times.  They  are  fighting  to 
get  back  their  homes  and  their  liberty.  France 
is  struggling  to  maintain  the  government 
which  in  many  forms,  but  always  growing  more 
democratic  and  always  French,  has  existed 
for  centuries.  They,  too,  wish  to  regain  their 
lands  which  have  been  ravaged  by  the  enemy 
and  to  make  them  again  prosperous  and  happy. 
They  are  also  fighting  for  a  victory  which  will 
make  their  frontiers  safe  from  the  perpetual 
threat  of  war,  invasion  and  destruction,  which 
they  have  endured  for  more  than  forty  years. 

One  hundred  and  forty  years  ago  a  French 
army  at  the  request  of  Lafayette,  and  com 
manded  by  Rochambeau,  marched  past  this 
spot  over  yonder  Broadway,  then  as  now  the 
highway  between  New  York  and  Albany. 
Without  the  assistance  given  us  by  France  in 
our  Revolution,  it  is  doubtful  if  we  could  have 
won  our  independence.  France  has  never 
asked  any  return.  But  now  the  American 
army  in  France  and  American  soldiers  join 
ing  their  comrades  there  are  joyfully  giving 
to  the  French  people  a  recognition  of  their 
aid  to  Tis  in  our  hour  of  trial. 

The  British  know  what  they  are  fighting 
for.  It  is  to  preserve  that  democracy  which 
[2631 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

has  been  growing  steadily  and  progressively 
in  their  world-wide  empire.  It  is  that  Eng 
land,  Ireland,  Scotland  and  Wales,  and  the 
great  self-governing  colonies  of  Canada,  Aus 
tralia,  New  Zealand  and  South  Africa  may 
work  out  their  destiny,  which  is  a  democratic 
destiny,  in  peace  and  safety.  So  the  Italians 
are  fighting  to  regain  lost  territory  with  its 
kindred  race.  Russia  is  struggling  desperately 
to  save  the  soul  and  salvation  it  has  so  wonder 
fully  found.  All  are  fighting  for  a  peace  which 
no  autocrat  and  no  privileged  class  can  ever 
break  and  plunge  the  people  of  the  world  into 
the  horrors  of  war. 

It  is  marvelous  that  in  this  twentieth  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  the  essential  and  funda 
mental  rights  of  nations  and  individuals  should 
be  in  peril  because  of  the  ambition  of  a  ruthless 
autocracy  to  dominate,  control  or  conquer  the 
whole  world.  I  cannot  but  believe  that  if  the 
German  people  knew  what  they  are  being  forced 
to  fight  for  they  would  cease  to  make  such 
frightful  sacrifices  to  gratify  the  ambition  of 
Kaiser,  king  or  aristocracy. 

It  is  the  privilege  of  age  to  have  witnessed 
and  participated  in  great  epochs  and  historical 
events.  When  I  was  a  boy  in  Peekskill,  just 
north  of  you,  there  were  still  surviving  a  few 
veterans  of  Washington's  Army  of  the  Rev 
olution.  They  were  our  venerated  and  most 
honored  citizens.  In  those  days  we  were  still 
[264] 


SPEECH   TO   DRAFTED   MEN 

near  enough  to  the  Revolution  and  keen  enough 
in  the  enjoyment  of  its  benefits  to  celebrate 
the  Fourth  of  July.  The  day  was  ushered  in 
with  the  firing  of  cannon  and  the  ringing  of 
church  bells.  There  were  processions  and  mass 
meetings,  illumination  and  fireworks.  The 
place  of  honor  at  the  head  of  the  parade  and 
upon  the  platform  on  which  was  read  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  and  from  which  the 
orator  delivered  the  oration,  was  occupied  by 
these  heroes  of  the  War  of  Independence. 

They  took  precedence  of  public  officials,  of 
the  men  of  the  professions  and  of  business, 
because  all  felt  that  the  opportunity  of  American 
life  for  themselves  and  their  children  had  been 
won  by  the  valor  of  these  soldiers.  So  now, 
upon  every  public  occasion,  the  right  of  the 
line  and  the  first  place  in  the  meeting,  the  posi 
tion  of  honor  and  distinction  is  given  to  the 
veterans  of  the  Civil  War.  Ranged  beside  you 
here  is  living  testimony  in  these  vigorous  old 
soldiers  who,  representing  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic,  are  at  once  for  you  both  inspira 
tion  and  hope.  As  one  of  them,  I  join  in  bidding 
you  Godspeed  and  good  luck.  We  all  feel 
and  know  that  that  faded  old  uniform  repre 
sents  the  preservation  of  a  Union  in  which  the 
descendants  of  those  who  fought  to  preserve, 
and  the  descendants  of  those  who  fought  to 
destroy  equally  rejoice.  In  this  great  fratricidal 
strife  each  side,  brethren  as  they  were,  believed 
[265] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

they  were  right.  But  now,  with  slavery 
destroyed,  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
meaning  what  it  said,  and  with  the  wonderful 
result  of  a  country  reunited  and  enjoying  all 
the  blessings  of  the  law,  order  and  liberty,  the 
South  and  the  North,  the  men  who  fought 
under  the  Union  banner  and  those  under  the 
Confederate,  are  all  happily  and  joyfully 
Americans.  Our  great  contests  have  been  for 
liberty.  In  the  Revolutionary  War  it  was  to 
win  our  independence  and  become  a  Republic. 
In  our  Civil  War  it  was  for  equality  of  all  men 
before  the  law,  to  make  safe  and  perpetuate 
the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  among  which  are  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  and  to  keep  the  Republic 
of  the  United  States  united  and  sovereign  as 
the  ark  of  Democracy. 

We  are  in  this  war  for  no  selfish  purpose  but 
to  preserve  what  was  won  by  the  army  of 
Washington  and  established  upon  firmer  foun 
dations  by  the  armies  of  Lincoln  and  Grant. 
Modern  inventions  have  annihilated  distance 
and  time.  If  the  Allies  are  defeated  and  Great 
Britain,  France,  Italy  and  Russia  are  powerless, 
nothing  could  stop  or  prevent  the  invasion  of 
the  United  States  and  with  all  its  horrors. 
Anything  can  be  done  against  an  unprepared 
people.  In  a  country  where  there  are  good 
roads  and  railway  communications,  and  the 
air,  of  course,  always  free  to  a  thoroughly 
[266] 


SPEECH   TO    DRAFTED   MEN 

equipped  and  disciplined  enemy,  it  is  your 
mission  to  keep  that  enemy  away  from  our 
shores,  and  co-operating  with  our  Allies  to 
make  not  only  our  own  country,  but,  as  Pres 
ident  Wilson  says,  "The  world  safe  for  De 
mocracy.'* 

I  believe  in  the  value  of  heredity;  heredity 
of  great  deeds  and  patriotic  associations.  It  is 
a  privilege  and  a  rare  one  to  be  a  citizen  of 
this  old  County  of  Westchester.  Every  foot 
of  it  is  hallowed  ground.  Where  we  stand  was 
the  neutral  land  over  which,  one  hundred  and 
forty  years  ago,  marched  and  remarched  the 
patriot  army  and  the  enemy.  The  site  of  this 
beautiful  village  and  these  prosperous  hill 
sides  were  frequently  raided  and  ravaged. 
But  with  all  the  savagery  of  that  war  as  of  all 
wars,  history  records  none  of  the  outrages  on 
land  or  sea  which  in  this  contest  make  us  blush 
for  humanity.  Women  were  always  safe.  With 
in  a  stone's  throw  from  where  we  stand,  Major 
Andre*  was  captured  by  three  Westchester 
farmer  boys  who  wrere  enlisted  in  the  service 
of  Washington.  They  were  poor  but  patriotic. 
They  knew  what  they  were  fighting  for.  Major 
Andre*  offered  them  money  which  would  have 
made  them  rich  and  independent,  if  they  would 
let  him  go  on  with  his  papers.  If  they  had 
yielded  the  treachery  of  Arnold  would  have 
been  successful  and  the  success  of  our  fore 
fathers  most  seriously  endangered.  But  they 
[267] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

resisted  the  bribe,  and  to-day  among  the  im 
mortals,  not  only  of  Westchester  but  of  our 
country,  are  those  three  farmer  lads,  Paulding, 
Williams  and  Van  Wart.  It  was  one  of  the 
proudest  days  of  my  life,  when  in  1880  the 
whole  county  assembled  here  at  the  unveiling 
of  the  statue  to  their  memory,  and  I  was  the 
orator.  Across  the  river  is  Stony  Point, 
famous  for  the  great  victory  of  Anthony 
Wayne.  Within  your  village  lived  the 
father  of  American  literature  whose  pen 
made  the  Hudson  almost  as  romantic  as  the 
Rhine. 

I  may  recall  a  little  incident  of  the  Civil  War. 
The  18th  regiment  of  the  National  Guard  of 
the  State  of  New  York  was  a  Westchester 
regiment.  I  was  its  adjutant.  We  received 
orders  to  rendezvous  and  move  at  once  to  the 
front.  General  Lee  had  invaded  Pennsylvania 
and  was  threatening  Philadelphia  and  Wash 
ington.  History  makes  much  of  coincidences. 
They  are  the  favorite  opportunity  of  the  imag 
inative  historian  to  paint  striking  word-pic 
tures  of  the  causes  of  great  events  and  victories. 
The  day  the  18th  regiment  arrived  at  Balti 
more,  General  Lee  and  his  army  had  left  Penn 
sylvania  and  retreated  into  Virginia.  If  I  was 
an  imaginative  historian  I  might  paint  in  vivid 
colors  how  the  story  of  Westchester  in  the 
Revolution  accompanying  this  regiment  had 
convinced  the  great  commander  of  the  Con- 
[2681 


SPEECH   TO   DRAFTED   MEN 

federate  forces  that  it  was  better  not  to  further 
tempt  his  fortune  by  arousing  and  intensifying 
the  spirit  of  the  Revolution. 

When  I  was  recently  in  the  Berkshire  hills 
of  Massachusetts,  I  found  that  in  every  locality 
there  was  a  considerable  percentage  of  those 
who  had  been  drawn,  who  claimed  exemption 
and  release.  But  there  was  one  little  town  up 
in  the  hills  whose  quota  was  only  three, 
those  three  claimed  no  exemption,  passed  suc 
cessfully  the  examination  and  went  gladly  into 
camp  to  join  their  comrades.  The  name  of 
that  little  town  was  Peru.  Its  leading  citizen 
said  to  the  organizer  of  the  meeting,  which  I 
addressed  in  the  city  of  Pittsfield,  in  which  I 
narrated  this  incident,  "Chauncey  Depew  has 
put  Peru  on  the  map."  Boys,  it  is  for  you 
not  to  put  old  West  Chester  on  the  map,  but  to 
keep  it  there.  Your  ancestors,  one  hundred 
and  forty  years  ago,  put  West  Chester  on  the 
map;  your  fathers,  forty  odd  years  ago,  kept 
Westchester  on  the  map,  and  the  old  blood 
which  fought  successfully  for  liberty  and  in 
dependence  and  again  successfully  for  liberty 
and  union,  will  fight  again  through  you  suc 
cessfully  that  the  liberty  they  won  shall  not 
perish  from  earth,  and  that  the  fruits  of  that 
liberty  shall  be  enjoyed  by  all  the  world. 
Remember,  boys,  that  a  grateful  country  will 
keep  and  hold  you  in  its  fatherly  and  brotherly 
care  while  you  are  abroad,  and  will  welcome 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

you  back  and  place  you  among  those  like  the 
veterans  of  the  two  wars  of  our  history,  whose 
services  for  their  country  will  always  be  grate 
fully  remembered. 


270 


Address  before  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  October  22,  1917. 

(Stenographically  reported) 

My  Friends: 

It  is  a  very  great  pleasure  for  me  to  be  here 
to-day.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  that  this 
meeting  is  held  in  this  old  church.  When  one 
gets  along  in  life  he  goes  back  more  and  more 
to  the  beginnings,  and  more  and  more  cher 
ishes  the  early  days  and  their  associations.  My 
mother's  mother  was  in  this  church  a  hundred 
years  ago.  My  mother  was  a  member  of  this 
church  during  the  whole  of  her  life,  and  I  was 
baptized  here. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  emotions  one 
feels  when  brought  face  to  face  and  in  intimate 
association  with  the  best  recollections  of  a  life 
time.  As  I  stand  here  I  can  point  out  pews 
where  the  elders  and  deacons  and  leading  peo 
ple  in  the  church  of  that  day  used  to  sit.  The 
pew  right  down  here  was  where  I  came  as  a 
little  boy  with  my  mother,  and  right  behind  it 
sat  a  stern  disciplinarian  and  deacon  of  the 
church,  who  made  one  of  my  ears  longer  than 
the  other  by  pulling  it  because  of  my  inatten 
tion  to  the  sermon.  (Laughter.) 

[271] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

I  remember  my  mother  used  to  take  me 
from  a  very  early  period  to  the  prayer  meet 
ings  in  the  room  in  the  rear,  and  the  peculiar 
ity  about  some  of  the  elderly  men  who  attend 
ed  those  prayer  meetings  was  that  they  always 
made  the  same  prayer.  I  got  so  I  could  repeat 
the  prayer  of  every  one  of  them,  and  once, 
with  the  audacity  of  youth  and  with  that  sense 
of  humor  which  has  been  my  salvation  all  my 
life,  and  has  brought  me  into  no  end  of  trouble, 
I  made  a  suggestion  to  one  of  those  deacons. 
He  was  one  of  the  most  solemn  of  the  deacons 
and  he  always  began  his  prayer  like  this: 
"Oh,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  am  full  of 
wounds  and  bruises  and  putrefying  sores."  Af 
ter  hearing  that  for  nearly  a  year,  one  night  as 
we  were  coming  out  of  the  chapel  I  said  to 
him,  much  to  the  horror  of  my  mother,  "Dea 
con,  why  don't  you  take  something?"  (Laugh 
ter.)  Of  course,  the  good  deacon  meant  it  spir 
itually,  yet  he  was  such  a  good  man  that  I 
think  he  overstated  his  own  case. 

But  we  are  here  to-day  for  the  annual  meet 
ing  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  I  have  been  associated 
in  one  way  and  another  with  the  Y.  M.  C  A. 
organization  since  its  foundation.  If  I  remem 
ber  rightly  it  was  organized  in  Boston  in  1852. 
That  was  the  year  I  graduated  from  the  Peek- 
skill  Military  Academy.  (Applause.)  It  does 
not  seem  to  be  65  years  since  then.  It  seems 
as  if  it  were  yesterday,  when  I  stood  up  there 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

with  those  boys  delivering  what  I  thought  was 
an  oration  that  Demosthenes  would  have  en 
vied,  to  my  mother,  my  father,  and  my  broth 
ers  and  sisters,  but  most  of  all  to  the  girls  on 
one  side.  (Laughter.) 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  on  too  narrow  a  foun 
dation  in  those  early  days,  and  it  did  not  get 
on  very  well.  When  I  came  home  from  Yale, 
having  graduated  in  June,  1856,  I  became 
a  law  student  in  the  office  of  Edward  Wells, 
one  of  the  most  public-spirited  and  best  citi 
zens  of  the  town.  And  we  young  men  headed 
by  Mr.  Edward  Wells  formed  a  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  the  summer  of  1856  in 
the  lecture  room  in  the  rear  of  this  church. 
There  were  gathered  probably  thirty  young 
men  in  that  room,  and  I  remember  that  the 
first  paper  was  read  by  myself,  and  the  subject 
was  "Paul  on  Mars  Hill."  When  I  visited 
Athens  many  years  afterwards  I  could  not  help 
recalling  that  my  first  address  before  a  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  had  been  on  "Paul  on  Mars  Hill,"  and 
when  I  stood  on  the  spot  which  the  guide  told 
me  was  the  very  spot  upon  which  Paul  stood  I 
thought  I  would  test  with  my  tenor  voice  what 
sort  of  a  voice  Paul  had  when  he  shouted,  "Ye 
men  of  Athens."  It  was  a  very  clear  and  beau 
tiful  day,  as  it  usually  is  in  those  classic  climes, 
and  about  half  or  three-quarters  of  a  mile  off 
were  some  Greek  workmen  repairing  a  road. 
Standing  in  Paul's  place  and  raising  my  voice 
[273] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

to  its  highest  pitch  I  shouted,  "Ye  men  of 
Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  too 
superstitious."  They  picked  up  their  spades 
and  started  for  me  and  I  left  in  a  hurry,  and  I 
wondered  whether  Paul's  reception  was  some 
thing  of  the  same  kind,  though  I  believe  he 
spoke  in  Greek,  but  my  gift  of  Greek,  modern 
Greek  especially,  was  not  strong  at  that 
period. 

So  I  have  been  in  the  habit  ever  since  I  went 
on  the  platform  sixty-one  years  ago  on  leaving 
Yale,  of  celebrating  Peekskill  as  the  center  and 
source  and  beginning  of  all  good  things  all  over 
this  world.  (Applause.)  I  had  in  mind,  in 
doing  that,  that  the  best  thing  I  ever  met  in 
my  life  was  my  mother,  but  I  had  in  mind, 
also,  the  fact  that  the  Hudson  River  has  no 
equal;  that  this  bay  has  nothing  like  it;  that 
these  associations  of  Revolutionary  period  make 
it  holy  ground  all  around  here,  and  so  now, 
whenever  I  have  anything  to  say  to  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  anywhere  in  the  country,  and  it  happens 
I  quite  often  do,  I  say  that  it  was  founded  in 

eekskill. 

ell,  my  friends,  it  is  wonderful  what  will 
grow  from  small  beginnings.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
amounted  to  little  during  the  first  ten  or  fif 
teen  or  twenty  years  of  its  life  for  the  reason 
that  it  was  built  on  too  narrow  a  basis,  for  the 
reason  that  it  was  thought  at  the  time  that 
only  church  members  would  be  admitted,  for 
[2741 


Peek 
W 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

the  reason  that  it  was  thought  that  only  in  a 
religious  view  could  it  be  conducted.  The  res 
cue  work,  which  is  the  real  virtue  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  that  takes  a  young  man  and  brings  him 
back  to  his  home  and  brings  him  back  to  the 
proper  life,  proper  thoughts,  proper  associa 
tions  and  makes  a  man  of  him  and  then  makes 
a  Christian  of  him,  so  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has 
become  the  recruiting  ground  of  the  church, 
was  of  slow  growth  and  did  not  come  imme 
diately.  But  now  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  perform 
ing  a  work  such  as  no  other  organization,  not 
even  the  Red  Cross  with  all  its  wonderful  ac 
complishments,  is  doing.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  all 
over  the  country  is  doing  this  for  the  young 
men  who  are  absent  from  the  associations  and 
the  protection  of  a  home.  It  is  furnishing  them 
with  that  sweetest  word  in  the  language  and 
with  all  that  it  means,  a  home.  These  camps 
that  are  everywhere,  where  our  boys  are  freed 
from  the  associations  that  are  right,  from  the 
influence  of  home  and  neighborhood  and 
friends,  and  where  they  are  subject  to  every 
temptation,  it  is  there  that  the  salvation  of  the 
camp  is  the  tent  erected  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Because  around  those  camps  gather  the  sharks 
and  the  harpies  and  the  preyers  upon  youth, 
both  women  and  men.  These  boys  are  receiv 
ing  a  salary  which  they  have  no  use  for,  except 
to  spend,  and  as  soon  as  they  gather  in  a  camp 
these  harpies  and  thieves  and  demoralizers  of 
[2751 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

youth  gather  about  the  camp  in  order  to  col 
lect  that  money. 

And  it  is  abroad  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  per 
forming  its  greatest,  its  most  noble  work  just 
now.  I  saw  a  letter  the  other  day  from  a 
young  man  who  was  in  one  of  the  first  groups 
of  American  soldiers  that  landed  in  England, 
and  he  said,  "  Mother,  the  wonderful  thing 
about  it  was  not  the  trip,  nor  the  submarines, 
nor  the  war,  the  wonderful  thing  was  that  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  met  us  all  as  we  landed,  and  they 
took  us  where  there  were  all  the  comforts  and 
surroundings  of  a  home,  and  they  introduced 
us  to  people  who  were  most  kind  and  who  wel 
comed  us  as  sons  and  as  brothers,  and  they 
never  left  us  one  moment,  but  their  shadowing 
influence  was  with  us  until  we  went  to  France. " 

I  know  much  of  France.  France  never  took 
much  stock  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  It  did  not  see 
any  particular  benefit  that  could  come  from 
such  an  organization,  but  now  the  French 
welcome  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  above  all  other 
things  that  are  coming  there  from  this  won 
derful  country  to  help  them  in  this  war. 
Because  they  have  discovered  what  it  is  doing. 
And  it  is  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  unit  near  the  soldiers 
everywhere  that  is  furnishing  them  with  what 
they  can  find  only  at  home. 

Last  week  there  came  to  see  me  one  of 
the  most  promising  ministers  in  the  Presby 
terian  church,  and  he  differs  in  no  way  from 
[276] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

the  ministers  of  any  other  church;  he  is  a 
young  man;  he  is  a  bachelor;  he  has  made  a 
wonderful  name  for  himself  by  his  eloquence, 
by  his  parish  work,  by  his  devotion;  he  had  a 
wonderful  future  before  him;  great  churches  in 
the  cities  were  clamoring  for  him.  But  he  said, 
"I  feel  it  is  my  duty,  and  God  is  impelling  me 
to  go  over  there  with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  I  see 
these  boys  go,  I  see  them  go  as  men,  I  see 
them  go  to  become  heroes,  and  I  am  afraid 
they  may  come  back  rotten  in  spirit,  in  morals, 
in  flesh,  and  I  want  to  go  there  that  they  shall 
come  back  not  only  heroes,  but  Christian  men, 
and  I  can  not  stay,  I  am  going. "  (Applause.) 
And  I  bade  him  good-by. 

Well,  my  friends,  this  war  is  upon  us.  No 
matter  what  you  talk  about  you  can  not  help 
talking  about  the  war.  I  heard  of  a  lady  who 
summoned  all  the  women  of  her  neighborhood 
for  an  entertainment  and  she  said:  "We  are 
very  weary  talking  about  the  war  and  sewing 
for  the  war,  knitting  for  the  war  and  work 
ing  for  the  war,  so  I  thought  I  would  vary 
the  entertainment,  my  daughter  will  play  on 
the  piano  and  recite  or  we  can  talk  war."  And 
the  women  shouted  unanimously,  "Talk  war." 
(Laughter.) 

I  think  we  do  not  appreciate,  and  I  cer 
tainly  never  have  seen  it  properly  presented, 
how  close  to  us  as  Christians,  as  church  mem 
bers,  as  Y.  M.  C.  A.  members  this  war  is. 
[277] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

And  there  is  another  point  which  I  have  never 
seen  stated,  but  which  strikes  me  very  forcibly, 
and  that  is  that  we  are  responsible  for  this 
war.  And  therefore  it  is  our  duty  to  fight  it  out 
and  fight  it  to  a  successful  conclusion.  Now  you 
inquire :  How  are  we  responsible  for  this  war? 
This  world  until  Christ  came  upon  earth  was 
given  over  to  tyranny  and  oppression,  given 
over  to  the  few  who  ruled  with  an  iron  hand 
and  to  the  others  who  were  slaves,  giving  their 
products  and  their  sons  as  well  to  fight  for  a 
government  that  robbed  them.  That  was  the 
Roman  empire.  The  Roman  empire,  which  is 
the  model  and  the  guide  of  the  German  mili 
tary  class  to-day,  had  the  whole  civilized  world 
under  its  feet.  It  governed  all  the  provinces 
and  nations  and  states  of  the  world  by  procon 
suls  with  the  Roman  legions  behind  them.  It 
took  from  every  nation  and  race  the  products 
of  its  industry,  its  skill,  its  genius,  and  of  its 
art,  and  it  took  its  children  also,  so  far  as  it 
needed  them.  And  it  gave  nothing  in  return 
except  to  preserve  an  iron  order  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Roman  people.  And  this  tribute  gath 
ered  from  the  whole  world,  from  the  farms, 
from  the  merchants,  from  labor,  was  sent  into 
the  central  treasury  and  carried  to  the  great 
imperial  city  of  Rome,  that  those  people  might 
live  in  idleness  and  luxury  and  enjoy  the 
barbaric  and  frightful  amusements  of  the  glad 
iatorial  shows. 

[278] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

Just  then  Christ  came  on  earth.  He  came 
alone.  He  came  from  the  humblest  of  begin 
nings.  He  preached  a  doctrine  never  heard  of 
before,  the  brotherhood  of  man.  He  preached 
the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law.  He 
said,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind"  and  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh 
bor  as  thyself."  That  doctrine  was  destructive 
of  Rome.  It  was  destructive  of  tyranny.  It 
was  destructive  of  classes,  where  two-thirds 
were  slaves.  It  was  destructive  of  the  divine 
right  of  kings,  because  then  Csesar  had  pro 
claimed  that  he  was  divine,  and  everywhere 
was  his  statue  or  his  bust  which  had  to  be  wor 
shipped.  And  here  we  have  the  origin  of  the 
divinity  of  kings.  After  Augustus  came  Ti 
berius,  who  was  frightful,  and  then  came  the 
worst  creatures  who  have  ever  existed  in  hu 
man  form,  Caligula  and  Nero,  and  every  one  of 
them  had  to  be  worshipped  as  a  god  because  he 
was  divine.  The  doctrine  of  Christ  struck  right 
at  this  divinity  of  kings,  and  for  that  reason  He 
was  crucified,  for  that  reason  His  followers  were 
crucified  and  were  given  to  the  wild  beasts  and 
to  the  gladiators  in  the  shows,  and  Christ,  when 
He  died  upon  the  cross,  had  to  admit  that  His 
mission  was  a  failure.  It  was  a  total  failure. 
There  was  the  Roman  empire  untouched,  tyr 
anny  untouched,  slavery  untouched,  autoc 
racy  untouched,  militarism  untouched  and  su- 
[279] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

preme,  and  His  doctrines  were  left  to  eleven 
ignorant,  uneducated  fishermen.  Was  there 
ever  such  an  appalling  beginning  for  any 
system  of  theology  or  principle? 

But  a  divine  truth  can  not  be  stopped.  A 
truth  had  been  enunciated,  and  for  that  reason 
its  originator  had  died  on  the  cross  and  it  was 
going  onward,  and  it  went  on  until  it  overthrew 
the  Roman  empire,  it  broke  up  that  mighty 
organization,  and  then  came  the  Middle  Ages 
of  darkness,  and  the  churches  became  the  ref 
uge  of  those  who  were  persecuted.  The  church 
preserved  literature,  and  then  came  the  Renais 
sance  when  the  academies  sprang  up,  and  with 
the  academies  came  education,  and  with  edu 
cation  came  a  better  and  a  larger  knowledge  of 
what  Christ  had  taught,  and  then  came  the  ap 
prehension  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  That 
apprehension  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  first 
stirred  Great  Britain,  and  there  it  brought  forth 
the  Magna  Charta  and  the  Bill  of  Rights,  which 
is  the  foundation  of  American  liberty  and  the 
foundation  of  English  liberty;  then  it  went  over 
to  little  Holland  and  there  it  made  a  sanctuary 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty;  then  it  inspired 
the  Pilgrim  fathers  to  sail  for  the  New  World 
where  they  could  have  liberty  of  conscience, 
of  thought,  and  of  action;  and  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower  they  framed  this  wonderful 
charter,  "We  will  form  a  government  of  just 
and  equal  laws."  No  such  thing  had  ever 
[  280  ] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

been  known  or  heard  of  in  this  world.  A 
government  of  just  and  equal  laws!  And  then 
from  that  a  hundred  odd  years  afterwards 
came  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Lafayette,  a  young  man,  was  an  officer 
on  the  staff  of  the  general  commanding  the 
French  army.  The  general  gave  a  dinner  to 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  a  brother  of  George 
III.,  an  autocrat  and  a  tyrant,  but  with  insti 
tutions  that  enabled  him  to  be  one.  And  at 
the  dinner  the  Duke  said:  "Our  colonists 
across  the  Atlantic  over  there  in  America  have 
revolted,  and  they  have  put  forth  this  reason 
why  they  have  revolted  from  our  government 
and  our  king,"  and  then  he  read  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  beginning,  "All  men  are 
created  equal ;  they  are  endowed  by  their  Crea 
tor  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among 
these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness,"  and  "All  power  is  derived  from  the  peo 
ple."  "Why,"  said  his  Royal  Highness,  the 
Duke,  "that  doctrine  would  destroy  all  gov 
ernment,  that  doctrine  would  lead  to  a  revolu 
tion  which  would  disrupt  the  civilized  world." 
Young  Lafayette  retired  from  that  dinner  and 
wrote  a  letter  to  his  wife  in  which  he  said: 
"Dear  Heart,  I  have  heard  to-night  from  the 
lips  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  the  story  of 
American  independence.  It  touches  my  heart 
and  I  am  going  to  fight  for  it."  In  spite  of  the 
efforts  that  were  made  to  keep  him,  and  they 
[281] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

were  very  great,  he  landed  in  America.  The 
Continental  Congress  was  overwhelmed  by  for 
eign  adventurers  seeking  commissions  and  sal 
aries,  but  this  young  man  said:  "I  ask  noth 
ing  but  to  fight  for  you  at  my  own  expense." 
They  put  him  on  the  staff  of  General  Washing 
ton.  And  as  the  intimacy  grew,  the  friendship 
grew,  until  the  friendship  between  George 
Washington  and  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  be 
came  one  of  the  historical  friendships  of  all 
time;  on  the  one  hand  a  reverence  and  a  devo 
tion  for  the  greatest  man  who  ever  lived,  and 
on  the  other  hand  a  fatherly  affection  which 
nothing  could  surpass,  for  Washington  was 
childless.  And  then  after  two  years  came  the 
dreadful  campaign  of  Valley  Forge,  when  our 
soldiers  had  neither  food,  nor  clothing,  nor 
anything  sufficient,  and  no  pay,  and  Washing 
ton  said  to  Lafayette,  "We  are  nearly  at  the 
end  of  our  tether."  Then  Lafayette  took  pass 
age  for  France;  his  arrival  at  that  gay  and 
brilliant  court  was  an  event;  he  captured  in 
stantly  the  imagination  of  Queen  Marie  Antoi 
nette,  and  she  brought  over  the  King,  and  then, 
in  spite  of  the  wise  men  and  the  financiers 
who  said,  "  We  will  be  ruined,"  the  King  and  the 
Queen — for  they  were  autocrats — said:  "We 
will  give  Lafayette  an  army  and  a  navy."  And 
Lafayette  returned  with  Rochambeau  and  a 
large  French  army,  and  with  a  navy  under  De 
Grasse  and  D'Estaing,  and  with  that  army  and 
[282] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

that  navy  and  with  the  gold  they  brought  Wash 
ington  was  enabled  to  pay  his  debts,  and  equip 
his  army.  They  won  for  us  American  inde 
pendence.  (Applause.)  They  asked  nothing 
in  return.  It  was  a  tragedy  that  they  did  for 
themselves,  because  the  expense  of  that  war 
and  the  other  wars  that  it  brought  on,  added 
to  the  tremendous  financial  difficulties  of 
France,  led  to  burdens  so  great  that  the  people 
revolted  and  Marie  Antoinette  and  her  hus 
band  both  went  to  the  scaffold.  But  the  truth 
lived,  the  same  as  the  truth  lived  from  Calvary. 
You  can  not  suppress  the  truth.  Death  does 
not  injure  truth;  death  sanctifies  truth.  And 
so  the  French  government  said:  "We  ask 
nothing  in  return  for  this  expenditure" — seven 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  a  frightful  sum  at 
that  time — "if  you  capture  Canada  which  be 
longed  to  us  you  can  keep  it,  we  ask  nothing." 
One  hundred  and  forty  years  have  passed 
and  France  has  gone  through  many  revolutions, 
empires  and  kingdoms,  and  is  finally  a  Repub 
lic  on  the  same  basis  and  as  free  as  we  are, 
founded  on  the  same  principles  and  with  the 
same  ideals  and  ambitions.  And  France  is  in  a 
life  and  death  struggle  for  her  sovereignty, 
her  civilization  and  her  liberty.  And  now, 
after  a  hundred  and  forty  years,  another  army, 
not  led  by  Rochambeau,  but  led  by  Pershing, 
and  another  navy,  not  led  by  De  Grasse  and 
D'Estaing,  but  by  Sims  and  Mayo,  are  on  the 
[283] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

French  coast,  and  as  the  men  from  that  army 
and  navy  go  ashore  and  come  to  the  French 
army,  they  say  to  the  Frenchmen  of  to-day, 
"We  are  Americans  here  after  a  hundred  and 
forty  years,  as  you  came  to  us,  and  we  will 
remain  with  you  and  fight  for  you  until  we  do 
for  you  what  you  did  for  us."  (Applause.) 

Now  then,  it  is  a  very  difficult  situation 
which  faces  us,  yet  it  is  one  every  boy  and 
every  girl  ought  to  be  able  to  understand.  I 
have  tried  to  make  clear  that  it  is  a  Christian 
war  and  that  it  is  the  result  of  principles  that 
began  on  Calvary. 

Let  us  see  the  other  side.  Napoleon  was  de 
feated  at  Waterloo.  Napoleon  was  the  driving 
force  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  the  prin 
ciples  of  liberty,  though  he  tried  to  overcome  it 
so  far  as  he  himself  was  concerned.  What  he  did 
was  to  overthrow  thrones,  what  he  did  was  to 
knock  out  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  make 
it  absurd,  what  he  did  was  to  put  puppets  in 
the  royal  chairs  which  he  emptied.  He  was 
crushed  by  the  unity  of  autocratic  power  at 
Waterloo.  At  the  same  time  Bismarck  was 
born.  Napoleon  at  that  time  made  a  very  re 
markable  prophecy.  He  said,  "The  time  will 
come  when  Europe  will  be  either  Cossack  or  re 
publican."  He  said  Cossack  because  at  that 
time  Russia  was  the  only  complete  autocracy, 
for  Germany  was  divided  into  innumerable 
principalities  fighting  one  another.  Now  the 
[284] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

time  has  come  when  it  is  to  be  settled  by  arms 
whether  Europe  and  the  world  will  be  auto 
cratic  or  republican. 

At  the  same  time  that  Napoleon  died  Bis 
marck  was  born,  one  of  those  remarkable  per 
sonages  that  make  history  for  the  welfare  or 
destruction  of  the  world.  He  was  born  at  a 
time  when  there  was  taught  in  all  the  schools 
of  Prussia  autocracy  and  militarism.  Frederick 
the  Great,  the  founder  of  the  Hohenzollern 
dynasty,  had  but  one  theory,  which  he  had  no 
hesitation  in  expressing:  " Every  state,  every 
nation,  every  country  that  I  can  conquer  be 
longs  to  me  by  right  and  every  people  that 
fight  my  right  to  take  that  position  must  be 
crushed  out  and  destroyed."  That  has  been 
the  doctrine  of  the  family  ever  since  down  to 
to-day.  And  so  they  made  Prussia  alone  of  the 
many  states  of  the  German  empire  a  purely 
materialistic  and  militaristic  organization,  the 
army  being  everything,  the  civilian  authority 
subordinate,  and  the  civilian  authority  was  told, 
"We,  the  army,  will  keep  you  in  your  position 
and  keep  enemies  off,  we  will  conquer  other 
countries  to  enrich  you,  but  you  must  sustain 
the  army  with  your  money  and  with  your 


men." 


So  Bismarck  perfected  that  Prussian  militar 
ism  until  he  got  it  complete,  but  it  was  not 
strong  enough;  he  wanted  then  to  be  the  mas 
ter  of  the  German  people,  a  great  people  in 

[2851 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

themselves,  and  so  he  went  to  Denmark  and 
made  war  upon  her  without  any  excuse  what 
ever  and  took  away  two  of  her  best  provinces, 
Schleswig  and  Holstein,  and  annexed  them  to 
Prussia.  That  made  possible  the  Kiel  canal. 
Then  he  found  that  Hanover,  the  adjoining 
country,  about  as  large  and  populous  as  Prus 
sia,  was  not  very  strong,  so  he  attacked  Han 
over  without  any  reason,  tumbled  King  George 
off  the  throne,  captured  that  and  annexed  it 
to  Prussia.  Then  without  any  reason  he  at 
tacked  Austria,  and  having  a  better  army  and 
better  militarism  in  six  weeks  he  had  conquered 
Austria,  and  he  compelled  Austria  to  surrender 
the  leadership  of  the  German  people  and  the 
titular  title  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which 
is  the  whole  thing.  By  the  shrewdness  of  his 
diplomacy  and  by  just  that  very  sort  of  cozen 
ing  which  characterizes  militaristic  diplomacy, 
he  persuaded  England  that  it  would  insure 
eternal  peace  if  Heligoland,  which  she  owned 
and  without  which  the  German  navy  could 
never  have  existed,  should  be  given  up  for 
peace  forever.  And  so  Heligoland  was  given 
up.  Then  he  attacked  France  and  conquered 
it  in  sixty  days.  He  took  away  two  of  her 
best  provinces;  he  imposed  upon  her  a  fine 
which  he  thought  would  bleed  her  white.  Then 
he  said,  "Now  we  will  form  a  German  empire," 
which  they  did,  with  the  Prussian  king  as  Em 
peror  with  autocratic  power. 
[  286  1 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

We  do  not  appreciate  what  power  the  Ger 
man  Emperor  has.  You  meet  a  German  here 
on  the  street  who  has  not  studied  the  question, 
and  he  says,  "We  have  the  Reichstag  elected 
by  universal  suffrage."  That  is  true.  But  you 
have  got  a  Bundesrath  of  58  men,  all  of  whom 
are  appointed  by  the  princes  and  kings  of  the 
different  states  of  Germany,  and  a  majority  of 
whom  are  appointed  directly  or  indirectly  by 
the  Kaiser  himself.  No  bill  can  be  passed,  and 
nothing  can  be  done  unless  the  Bundesrath 
sanctions  it.  If  the  Bundesrath  should  happen 
to  sanction  it,  the  Kaiser  can  veto  the  whole 
thing  and  do  as  he  has  a  mind  to. 

Now  then,  the  Emperor,  brought  up  in  this 
school,  has  gone  on  for  twenty-six  years,  gone 
on  day  by  day  and  night  by  night  making  Ger 
many  the  most  extraordinary  military  power 
that  the  world  ever  saw  since  ancient  Rome. 
And  then  comes  something  which  is  very  near 
to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  very  near  to  the  Peekskill 
Military  Academy,  very  near  to  this  and  all 
churches.  Bismarck's  theory  was  that  the  Em 
peror  and  his  government  must  control  the  in 
telligence  and  the  conscience  and  opinions  of 
the  people  in  order  to  have  autocracy  work  its 
way  and  have  unlimited  means  and  men  to  do 
it.  So  every  teacher  from  the  kindergarten  to 
the  university  and  the  theological  school  and 
the  technical  school  gets  his  salary  from  the 
state  and  is  appointed  and  removed  by  the 
[  287] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

state.  Every  preacher  gets  his  salary  from  the 
state  and  is  appointed  and  removed  by  the 
state;  and  there  is  a  bureau  of  education  which 
sees  to  that,  and  a  bureau  of  theology  which 
sees  to  that,  and  a  bureau  of  the  press,  so 
that  inspired  articles  go  out  to  the  press,  and 
nothing  can  appear  in  the  press  that  is  not  ap 
proved  by  that  bureau  and  that  censorship. 
Forty  years  of  such  instruction  has  educated 
eighty  millions  of  people  until  to-day  every  man, 
woman  and  child  believe  that  the  world 
belongs  to  Germany,  and  that  Germany  has 
the  right,  as  long  as  she  has  the  power,  to 
capture  other  nations,  their  men,  women  and 
wealth,  for  their  own  benefit.  When  at  the 
beginning  of  this  war  the  Kaiser  and  his 
armies  started  out,  the  people  danced  with 
joy  all  over  Germany,  jubilant  because  the 
time  had  come,  as  it  was  in  ancient  Rome, 
when  the  spoils  of  the  world  would  be 
brought  into  the  Fatherland  and  they  would 
all  enjoy  the  possession  of  it. 

And  then  came  also  this  belief,  that  those 
who  oppose  this  world  wide  conquest  are  fight 
ing  God  as  well  as  Germany,  and  therefore  if 
their  houses  are  destroyed,  if  their  women  are 
violated,  if  their  property  is  taken,  if  they  are 
shot,  they  are  only  getting  their  just 
deserts. 

My  friends,  this  wonderful  scheme  of  univer 
sal  conquest  would  have  succeeded  except  for 
[288] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

what?  A  miscalculation.  In  my  long  life  I 
have  seen  many  a  man  busted  from  a  miscal 
culation.  (Laughter.)  And  it  is  easy  for  a 
country  to  be  busted  from  a  miscalculation. 
They  did  not  think  that  Belgium  would  resist, 
but  she  did,  and  held  them  for  three  weeks.  If 
she  had  not,  they  would  have  got  to  Paris. 
They  did  not  think  that  the  French  army  could 
stand  up,  but  it  did,  and  besides  150,000  Eng 
lishmen  had  gone  over  there.  They  did  not 
think  that  England  would  do  anything,  be 
cause  they  thought  she  was  in  the  throes  of 
civil  war  on  account  of  the  Irish  question,  and 
beside  that  they  always  said  nice  things  about 
England.  Was  not  Queen  Victoria  the  grand 
mother  of  the  Kaiser?  Great  Britain  would 
not  do  anything.  And  the  Kaiser  was  in  such 
a  rage  when  Great  Britain  did  come  in,  because 
he  knew  her  power  and  he  knew  what  the  race 
will  do,  that  he  sent  word  to  the  British  am 
bassador:  "I  value  more  highly  than  any 
thing  else  that  I  am  a  Major  General  in  the 
British  army  and  can  wear  its  uniform,  and  an 
Admiral  in  the  British  navy  and  can  wear  its 
uniform,  but  I  have  burned  them  both."  And 
then  when  the  war  went  on  they  said,  "Why, 
America  won't  come  in,  and  if  she  does,  what 
does  she  amount  to?  America  is  all  dollars. 
You  can  buy  America  if  you  want  to.  If  it  be 
comes  necessary  we  will  just  buy  her  up.  And 
if  she  should  lose  her  head  and  come  in,  she 
[  289] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

won't  fight.  They  have  been  doing  nothing  but 
making  money  there  since  the  Civil  War;  the 
stamina  and  the  blood  is  all  out  of  them;  Amer 
ica  doesn't  amount  to  anything."  I  have  had 
that  told  me.  Our  representatives  and  our  con 
sul  generals  said  it  was  told  them  on  the  streets 
and  told  them  in  private,  "Why  should  we  de 
lay  this  U-boat  destruction  of  neutral  vessels 
on  your  account?  You  don't  amount  to  any 
thing." 

My  friends,  we  come  to  this  point:  The  Ger 
man  autocracy,  the  Kaiser,  the  militarists,  com 
mence  everything  by  saying,  "God  is  on  our 
side."  The  Kaiser  sends  a  message  to  the  King 
of  Greece,  "We  will  put  you  back  on  your 
throne  because  God  and  the  mailed  fist  will  do 
it."  He  compliments  the  Turk,  who  has  assas 
sinated  and  starved  in  cold  blood  a  whole  na 
tion  of  Armenians,  two  millions  of  them,  and 
he  says,  "God  and  the  mailed  fist  will  help  you 
to  maintain  your  sovereignty."  He  goes  to 
the  army  which  has  ravaged  Belgium  and 
Northern  France,  which  has  sacked  cities,  killed 
and  murdered  and  ravaged  and  says:  "Brave 
men,  Almighty  God  is  with  you."  I  think  he 
believes  that,  because,  my  friends,  there  are 
battling  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe  to-day 
two  gods.  Heinrich  Heine,  one  of  the  great 
poets  of  Germany,  in  1834,  wrote  this  proph 
ecy,  "The  present  generation  of  Germans  are 
degenerating,  they  are  too  weak,  and  Christian- 
[290] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

ity  has  made  them  so;  but  the  old  stone  gods 
will  rise  in  time  from  their  graves  and  then 
Thor  with  his  hammer  will  smash  into  splin 
ters  the  Gothic  cathedrals.77  And  that  god 
whom  they  worshipped  was  the  god  of  the  Teu 
tonic  race  of  that  period,  the  god  who  said, 
"  Might  makes  right  and  power  must  be  yield 
ed  to  and  consult  only  itself.  Might  makes 
right,  and  whatever  might  can  win  belongs  to 
might,  and  there  is  no  other  standard  of  justice 
or  of  righteousness  in  the  world."  Against 
that  is,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy 
self." 

Those  are  the  two  principles  that  are  to-day 
righting  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe.  And 
why  are  we  there?  Because  we  had  no  right  to 
stay  away.  We  had  no  right  to  stay  away. 
We  are  fighting  for  what  Christ  stood  for  and 
was  sacrificed  for.  We  are  fighting  for  what 
George  Washington  stood  for.  We  are  fighting 
for  what  Abraham  Lincoln  stood  for.  We  are 
fighting  for  liberty  as  they  understood  it  and 
as  they  enjoyed  it  and  gave  it  to  us.  And  we  are 
fighting  for  the  civilization  which  has  come  to 
us  under  this  glorious  American  flag  and  for 
all  that  it  means. 

Two  men,  the  Emperor  of  Germany  and  the 
Czar  of  Russia,  had  the  power,  without  con 
sulting  anybody,  without  asking  their  people, 
[291] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

to  plunge  the  world  into  the  horrors  of  war,  to 
impose  upon  it  autocracy,  and  to  destroy  gov 
ernments  of  the  people  and  by  the  people.  The 
lesson  of  this  war  for  us  is  that  it  shall  be  fought 
until  no  single  man  and  no  two  men  and  no 
class  in  any  country  shall  be  able  to  unite  with 
an  exclusive  class  in  another  country  to  bring 
on  war.  All  the  wars  of  the  future  must  be  only 
by  the  full  consent  of  the  people  themselves. 
And  there  must  also  be  safeguards  by  which  all 
peace  loving  and  free  governments  can  restrain 
hostile  action  by  any  country,  unless  the  judg 
ment  of  all  justifies  it. 

But  I  meet  constantly  men  who  say,  "Why 
don't  you  wait  until  they  get  here,  wait  until 
they  come?"  I  pity  a  man  or  a  woman  who 
knows  so  little  of  modern  warfare.  When  the 
soldiers  marched  out  to  Lexington  and  Con 
cord  neither  side  had  anything  but  an  old 
musket  that  would  shoot  about  a  hundred 
yards,  and  so  there  was  no  such  thing  as  put 
ting  down  such  people.  And  then  there  were 
no  roads.  Now  our  railroads  and  good  roads 
are  all  our  weakness.  With  the  British  army 
and  navy  destroyed,  with  France  destroyed, 
with  Russia  impotent,  it  would  be  no  difficulty 
at  all  for  a  million  of  men  to  land  here.  And 
they  could  cut  off  New  York  and  instantly  im 
pose,  as  they  always  do,  an  indemnity  of  many 
times  more  than  the  whole  cost  of  this  war  is 
going  to  be  to  us.  And  then  they  would  come 
[292] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

up  Broadway  with  its  splendid  roadway  and 
they  would  reach  Yonkers,  and  by  way  of 
example,  and  frightfulness  is  one  of  their  creeds, 
they  would  burn  Yonkers  after  looting  it.  And 
then  they  would  come  up  to  Tarrytown  and 
would  stick  a  musket  into  a  Tarrytown  house 
and  would  say,  "You  are  trying  to  shoot  us/' 
and  then  they  would  loot  Tarrytown,  and 
would  take  fifty  or  a  hundred  of  the  leading 
citizens  and  put  them  against  a  wall  and  shoot 
them.  And  then  they  would  take  the  young 
men  and  the  young  women  and  put  them  in 
the  army.  By  that  time  they  are  on  the  way 
to  Peekskill  over  the  best  road  there  is  in  the 
world,  and  they  have  armed  motor  cars,  and 
they  have  guns  that  will  carry  explosives 
weighing  a  ton,  which  will  blow  up  a  whole 
village  or  a  whole  brigade  at  a  time,  that  will 
shoot  twenty  miles,  they  are  carrying  them 
with  them;  and  the  chief  of  the  pacifists  has 
said,  "  Suppose  they  did,  wouldn't  a  million 
Americans  with  shotguns  and  Ford  cars  drive 
them  back  into  the  ocean?"  (Laughter.) 

I  had  a  letter  from  an  American  friend  who 
was  one  of  the  Relief  Committee  that  followed 
the  French  army  going  over  the  district  in 
France  which  the  Germans  have  occupied  for 
the  last  two  years  and  a  half,  and  in  his  letter 
he  said:  "The  first  town  we  came  to  was 
Noyon,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  cities  in 
France,  beautiful  in  its  shaded  streets,  beauti- 
[293] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

ful  in  its  museum  and  its  cathedral  and  its  town 
hall,  a  Gothic  structure;  beautiful  in  the  splen 
did  orchards  around,  which  were  the  delight  of 
the  whole  country;  beautiful  in  the  most  fin 
ished  and  artistic  residences  that  there  were 
in  France.  When  we  arrived  there  the  day 
after  the  German  army  left  there  was  not  a 
house  standing;  they  had  all  been  blown  out 
from  the  inside;  there  was  not  a  church  stand 
ing;  they  had  all  been  blown  out  from  the 
inside;  the  museum  and  the  town  hall  were 
down,  they  had  been  looted  of  all  their  treas 
ures.  There  was  not  a  piece  of  furniture  of 
any  kind  in  that  whole  city.  All  the  beds  and 
bedding,  all  the  parlor  furniture,  all  the  bed 
room  furniture,  all  the  kitchen  furniture  had 
been  swept  off  and  carried  along  with  the  army. 
All  the  clothes  of  all  the  inhabitants  except 
what  they  stood  in  had  been  swept  off.  Every 
tree  in  all  the  orchards  had  been  girdled  and 
killed.  Even  the  graves  in  the  old  churchyards 
had  been  dug  up  to  see  if  there  might  not  be 
plates  on  the  coffins  or  jewelry  among  the 
dead."  And  then  he  said  there  was  gathered  in 
the  market  place  all  the  young  men  and  all  the 
young  women  between  15  and  30  and  every 
one  of  them  carried  off. 

Now,  my  friends,  we  are  in  this  war  why? 

Because  of  that?      Because  of  Belgium  and 

France?    Yes,  in  part.    We  are  in  it  because  of 

ourselves.    When  the  Isusitania  went  down  one 

[2941 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

hundred  and  twenty  or  more  American  men 
and  women  and  children  were  lost.  And  then 
came  a  dozen  more  ships,  until  it  ran  up  to  a 
thousand  or  more  American  men,  women  and 
children  murdered.  And  then  Germany  said, 
"  We  will  let  you  go  on  the  ocean  with  one  ship 
a  week,  painted  as  we  order,  and  going  just  the 
lines  that  we  say  you  may  take,  and  with 
things  on  it  that  we  say  you  may  carry. " 

Why  did  the  old  Constitution  and  the  Guer- 
riere  fight  in  the  war  of  1812?  Why  did  Far- 
ragut  lash  himself  to  the  mast  in  front  of  Mo 
bile?  Why  did  Dewey  win  his  victory  at  Ma 
nila?  Why  did  Sampson  and  Schley  win  their 
victory  at  Santiago?  It  was  in  part  that  the 
United  States  should  have  its  place  on  the 
ocean  amongst  the  best  and  foremost  people  of 
the  world.  We  are  developing  an  industry  and 
agriculture  that  would  crush  us  by  congestion 
unless  we  had  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  is 
any  nation  strong  enough,  any  people  big 
enough,  to  say,  "  Yankees  can  only  go  where  we 
permit  them  to  go?"  That  old  flag  will  go 
wherever  it  wants.  (Applause.)  Any  Ameri 
can  who  travels  under  it,  whether  it  be  upon 
the  high  seas  or  wherever  he  lawfully  is  under 
international  law,  will  have  over  him  and 
around  him  the  power  of  a  hundred  million 
Americans  and  all  that  that  means.  (Applause.) 

Why,  the  Kaiser  said  to  James  W.  Gerard, 
our  ambassador,  "When  this  war  is  over  I 
[2951 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

won't  stand  any  nonsense  from  the  United 
States,"  which  means,  "Away  goes  your  Mon 
roe  Doctrine."  The  General  Staff  in  their 
calculations  which  have  recently  been  pub 
lished  assessed  the  United  States  as  indemnity 
in  this  world  tribute  to  Berlin  eighty-seven  bil 
lions  of  dollars.  That  is  our  part,  eighty-seven 
billions.  (Laughter.)  We  are  trying  now  in 
the  Liberty  Loan  to  raise  three.  Why,  it  is  an 
insurance  policy  to  raise  three  against  that 
eighty-seven. 

Well,  my  friends,  this  subject  is  most  en 
trancing,  most  interesting.  It  is  the  privilege 
of  a  man  at  my  time  of  life  to  feel  bitterly  and 
deeply  all  that  it  me?ns  and  hopefully  all  that 
it  promises.  To  have  gone  through  the  Civil 
War  and  see  this  country  placed  again  upon 
surer  foundations  and  with  the  whole  country 
welcoming  the  reorganization;  to  have  lived 
long  enough,  as  I  did,  to  meet  in  my  boyhood 
the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  for  I  knew  my 
grandfather  very  well,  I  was  old  enough  for 
that,  and  he  had  been  a  Corporal  in  a  West- 
chester  regiment  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  there  were  twenty  Revolutionary  veterans 
around  Peekskill  at  that  time;  that  is  a  life, 
that  is  an  education,  that  is  an  inspiration. 
And  to  live  now  to  see  this  country  grown  to 
its  present  position  of  first  and  foremost  in  all 
that  makes  in  government  life  worth  living, 
and  to  see  it  once  more  in  peril,  is  to  wonder— 
[296  ] 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  PEEKSKILL  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

though  I  do  not  wonder  any  more — why  the 
whole  nation  does  not  rise  up  for  civilization, 
for  American  liberty,  and  for  a  world  in  which 
it  is  safe  for  liberty  to  be. 

Oh,  it  is  a  glorious  thing  to  be  an  American 
to-day!  It  is  a  glorious  thing  to  see  these 
young  fellows  in  khaki  going  forward  as  I  saw 
them  go  forward  in  blue  from  this  old  village 
fifty  odd  years  ago.  It  is  a  glorious  thing  to 
feel  that  in  all  the  world  we  stand  for  nothing 
but  civilization,  liberty  and  right.  When  the 
French  soldier  sees,  when  the  English  soldier 
sees  our  troops  there,  he  knows  that  we  ask 
nothing  in  the  way  of  territory,  nothing  in  the 
way  of  indemnity,  but  that  we  are  fighting 
with  them  that  we  may  all  be  free.  And  I  think 
when  the  German  soldier  sees  us,  when  we 
finally  get  into  the  trenches,  now  I  understand 
he  is  denied  the  privilege  of  knowing  we  are 
there,  the  question  will  be:  "What  are  the 
Yankees  here  for,  what  are  the  Americans  here 
for?"  Finally  it  will  get  through  the  cordon 
of  steel  and  the  iron  band  of  autocracy  that 
the  American  soldiers  are  not  there  for  German 
territory,  not  there  for  German  loot,  not  there 
for  German  money,  not  there  for  German  men, 
not  there  for  German  women,  but  they  are 
there  that  all,  all,  all,  may  be  free  and  enjoy 
the  blessings  of  American  liberty  and  Christian 
civilization.  (Prolonged  applause.) 

[297] 


Speech  at  the  Rooms  of  the  Geographical  and 
Biographical  Society  of  New  York  on  the 
Occasion  of  the  Hanging  of  Mr.  Depew's 
Portrait  by  the  Society  on  their  Walls, 
December  13,  1917. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  have  faced  a  greater  variety  of  conditions 
and  met  as  many  unique  situations  as  almost 
anyone  in  the  country.  The  present  occasion 
is  unique  and  original.  This  ancient  and 
honorable  society  has  presented  itself  with  my 
portrait,  and  I  am  called  upon  to  make  the 
address.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  am  to  give 
a  biographical  sketch  of  the  subject  on  account 
of  my  familiarity  with  it,  or  am  to  criticise  the 
picture  as  a  work  of  art.  Mr.  Quistgaard  has 
produced  an  excellent  likeness,  a  picture  of 
great  merit.  There  is  one  thing,  however,  I 
can  do  gratefully  and  that  is  to  thank  the 
society  for  this  distinction.  I  noticed  that 
Mrs.  Depew,  who  had  her  first  view  of  the 
portrait  when  the  artist  drew  the  veil,  vigor 
ously  applauded.  This  settles  the  opinion  of 
our  family  and  its  harmony. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  had  their  own  way  of 

preserving  the  likenesses  of  their  friends  or  of 

their  rulers  by  embalming  their  bodies.     There 

are  limitations  to  this  method  of  expressing 

[298] 


THE    UNVEILING   OF   A   PORTRAIT 

affection  or  admiration,  and  one  of  them  is 
that  the  work  cannot  be  duplicated.  The 
mummy  of  Rameses  in  the  museum  at  Cairo 
presents  that  great  monarch  in  as  good  condition 
apparently  as  when,  as  Pharaoh,  he  ordered  his 
army  to  follow  the  Israelites  into  the  Red  Sea. 

It  is  impossible  to  recall  incidents  of  the  past 
which  are  not  duplicated  and  re-duplicated  in 
succeeding  generations.  When  Pharaoh  pur 
sued  the  Israelites,  he  let  his  armies  rush 
between  the  walls  of  the  lane  in  the  Red  Sea, 
through  which  the  Jews  had  passed  dry  shod, 
and  they  were  all  drowned,  but  King  Pharaoh 
and  his  sons  stayed  on  shore.  (Laughter.)  The 
result  was  that  he  enjoyed  the  throne  for  many 
years  and  his  sons  succeeding  him.  There  were 
not  at  that  period  any  socialists  or  social 
democrats  or  liberal-minded  subjects  or  news 
papers  to  question  divine  right  and  threaten 
its  continuance.  This  war  with  its  awful 
sacrifices  is  now  entering  upon  its  fourth  year. 
It  is  estimated  that  four  millions  of  Germans 
have  been  killed  and  wounded  and  every 
family  in  Germany  has  lost  one  or  more  of  its 
members,  but  the  Kaiser  and  his  six  sons  have 
still  undisputed  leadership  and  vigorous  health. 
They  have  stayed  on  shore.  (Laughter.) 

We  have  never  appreciated  fully  how  much 
of  history  and  the  instructive  teaching  of  it 
there  is  in  portraiture.  Important  events  follow 
each  other  so  rapidly  in  the  story  of  nations 

[299] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  periods  overlap  which  are  so  full  of  heroes 
and  men  of  genius  in  every  walk  of  life,  of 
evolution  and  revolution,  that  it  is  impossible 
with  the  enormous  exactions  of  our  busy  times 
to  keep  properly  familiar  with  the  past.  We 
are  making  history  now  every  day  and  world 
history  of  such  importance  that  the  whole 
world  is  to  be,  as  a  result  of  this  tragedy,  so 
reconstructed  that  future  generations  will  make 
a  new  start  from  this  war  and  what  has  resulted, 
and  care  little  what  preceded  it.  The  Civil 
War  led  for  a  generation  to  an  absolute  forget- 
fulness  of  the  Revolution  and  what  it  stood  for. 
Very  few  of  us  have  the  leisure  to  explore 
the  library,  but  a  portrait  always  interests 
and  arouses  inquiry.  Two  conspicuous  examples 
are  Washington  and  Lincoln.  Stuart's  portrait 
of  Washington  and  Carpenter's  of  Lincoln  have 
been  accepted  as  the  two  best  presentations 
of  those  great  men  while  in  life.  They  are  in 
all  the  school  books,  all  the  histories,  every 
library,  museum  and  State  Capitol,  and  on 
frequent  occasions  illumine  the  pages  of  the 
daily  and  weekly  newspapers  and  also  the 
magazines.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  con 
stant  reproduction  to  the  eye  of  youth,  middle 
age  and  old  age  of  Washington  and  Lincoln 
keep  before  each  generation  the  story  of  the 
founding  of  our  Republic,  of  the  emancipation 
of  the  slave  and  of  the  reconstruction  of  our 
nation.  Every  child  who  has  arrived  at  school 
[300] 


THE   UNVEILING   OF   A   PORTRAIT 

age  can  point  to  a  picture  of  Washington  or  of 
Lincoln  with  full  knowledge  of  their  lives  and 
deeds.  This  method  of  teaching  is  as  old  as  the 
human  race.  Sign  language  gives  evidence  of 
this  in  the  picture  the  cave  man  sketched  or 
carved  upon  the  walls  of  his  primitive  abode 
which  are  illustrations  of  the  educational 
efforts  of  our  ancestors  millions  of  years  ago. 
The  sculptor  is  far  more  limited  than  the 
portrait  painter.  We  have  a  recent  example 
of  a  controversy  which  would  never  have 
arisen  in  the  case  of  a  portrait,  because  the 
sitting  impresses  the  personality  of  the  subject 
upon  the  artist.  In  this  recent  statue  of 
Lincoln,  the  sculptor,  of  course,  never  saw  him, 
but  has  endeavored  with  great  talent  to  present 
in  one  figure  Lincoln's  divergent  characteristics. 
I  knew  him  very  well  and  saw  him  in  several 
moods.  He  never  got  away  from  his  early 
trials,  experiences  and  influences.  He  was 
normally  always  the  country  lawyer,  the 
inimitable  story  teller,  the  keen  politician  and 
shrewd  man  of  affairs.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  was  an  idealist  of  the  loftiest  sentiments 
and  the  tenderest  sympathies  and  emotions. 
The  artist  has  endeavored  to  convey  in  metal 
these  characteristics,  but  to  grasp  the  idea  one 
must  have  imagination  and  see  what  the  artist 
unquestionably  was  impressed  by  in  his  study 
of  Lincoln's  character.  Such  a  statue  cannot 
be  an  accurate  portrait.  What  we  always 
[3011 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

want  is  the  man  as  his  family,  his  friends  and 
his  neighbors  knew  him. 

There  was  a  famous  inquiry  which  went, 
years  and  years  ago,  through  the  country  and 
that  was,  "What  becomes  of  all  the  pins?" 
Quite  as  important  a  one  is,  "What  becomes 
of  all  the  portraits?"  There  is  nothing  that 
disappears  so  rapidly  as  a  family  portrait. 
The  children  look  at  it,  they  care  for  it,  but  the 
grandchildren — it  is  nothing  to  them;  and  the 
great-grandchildren  don't  care  anything  about  it 
except  they  have  a  genealogical  craze  and  want 
to  accumulate  a  lot  of  those  things  on  the 
walls.  But  the  family  portrait,  as  a  rule,  is 
sent  to  the  garret,  from  there  to  the  junk  shop 
and  then  into  the  dust  bin.  You  can  go  into 
junk  and  antiquarian  shops  all  over  New  York 
and  find  family  portraits  which  they  will  sell 
to  you  for  the  frame.  But  if  the  portrait 
happens  to  find  a  place  in  some  society  which 
has  permanence,  into  some  institution  which 
will  live,  then  there  is  an  opportunity  for  the 
man  or  the  woman  who  were  painted  to  have 
the  illustration  of  his  or  her  life  teach  its  lesson. 
But  there  has  become  a  new  view  and  value 
of  the  portrait.  All  the  distinguished  men 
and  women,  and  the  men  and  women  of  no 
distinction  whatever,  but  who  had  the  money, 
who  were  painted  in  the  period  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  Gainsborough,  Raeburn,  Romney 
and  Hopner,  have  portraits  which  are  of  incal- 
[  302  ] 


THE   UNVEILING    OF   A   PORTRAIT 

culable  value.  A  Sir  Joshua  brings  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  a  Gains 
borough  one  hundred  thousand,  and  so  on  down 
to  the  lowest  twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  I 
trust,  Mr.  Quistgaard,  the  day  will  come  when 
yours  will  be  as  valuable. 

There  are  numerous  families  in  the  old 
world,  I  know  many  of  them,  where  the  fortune 
has  been  dissipated  and  the  family  saved  by  the 
family  portraits.  The  ancestor,  either  by 
grants  from  the  King  or  by  his  extraordinary 
genius  in  some  line,  accumulates  a  vast  fortune. 
Then  he  buys  his  great  estate  with  its  forests, 
hunting  preserves,  meadows  and  palace  in 
town.  In  natural  course  his  son  succeeds, 
and  is  followed  by  the  grandson  and  the  great- 
grandson.  By  that  time  the  fortune  has  been 
impaired  and  the  estate  mortgaged,  but  upon 
the  walls  are  the  Sir  Joshua,  the  Gainsborough 
and  other  masters,  and  that  heir,  facing  bank 
ruptcy,  capitalizes  his  ancestors.  It  is  one  of 
the  wonders  of  modern  finance. 

I  know  an  instance  where,  through  no  fault 
Of  his  own,  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
British  House  of  Lords,  in  consequence  of  the 
extravagance  of  his  father,  grandfather  and 
great-grandfather,  found  his  estate  so  mort 
gaged  and  encumbered  that  he  could  not  meet 
even  the  interest  upon  the  debts.  What  to  do 
he  did  not  know.  He  was  in  despair,  when 
one  day  a  picture  dealer  called  and  said,  "My 

[303  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

lord,  I  understand  you  have  a  famous  Sir 
Joshua.  May  I  look  at  it?"  "All  right/'  he 
said.  So  he  went  in  and  my  lord  coming 
in  a  few  minutes  afterwards  saw  the  picture 
dealer  taking  this  picture  down.  He  said, 
"What  are  you  doing?"  "Why,"  the  dealer 
answered,  "an  American  client  of  mine  has 
heard  of  that  picture  and  is  exceedingly  anxious 
to  have  it,  and  I  am  taking  it  to  him."  "Sir, 
I  don't  sell  my  ancestors. "  The  picture  dealer 
laid  on  the  piano  twenty  thousand  pounds  in 
new  crisp  Bank  of  England  notes  and  then  took 
the  picture  under  his  arm  and  started  for  the 
door.  My  lord  said  afterwards  to  a  friend,  in 
narrating  the  occurrence,  "I  wanted  to  stop 
him,  but  I  had  to  have  the  money. "  (Laughter.) 
I  remember  when  a  series  of  portraits  were 
used  as  a  picturesque  and  effective  argument. 
President  Harrison  sent  for  me  to  come  to 
Washington.  When  I  arrived,  the  Hon. 
Stephen  B.  Elkins,  who  was  Secretary  of  War, 
called  upon  me  with  a  message  from  the 
President.  "The  President  wants  you,"  he 
said,  "to  accept  the  position  of  Secretary  of 
State  in  his  Cabinet,  Mr.  Blaine  having 
resigned. "  When  I  explained  to  him  that  it  was 
impossible  for  me  at  that  time  to  make  such  a 
sudden  change  in  my  life,  he  said,  "Let's  take  a 
walk. "  He  conducted  me  over  to  the  offices  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  and  then  pointed  to  the 
portraits,  beginning  with  Thomas  Jefferson,  of 
[304] 


THE   UNVEILING   OF   A   PORTRAIT 

those  who  had  held  that  position.  He  said, 
"You  will  notice  that  in  the  line  of  Secretaries 
of  State  there  is  more  distinction  in  statesman 
ship  and  ability  than  in  the  line  of  Presidents  of 
the  United  States.  To  be  in  that  line  is  fame. " 
My  friends,  I  want  to  congratulate  my  friend, 
Dr.  Dexter,  upon  his  delightful  address.  I 
have  heard  a  great  many  talks  at  Yale  com 
mencements  on  Yale's  past,  but  I  never  heard 
anything  so  informing  and  so  delicious  as  the 
bits  of  student  history  which  came  up  under 
that  picture  which  was  drawn  so  deftly  by  my 
distinguished  friend.  But  I  felt  also  about  it  a 
bit  of  embarrassment  because  when  your 
President  asked  me  to  come  here  for  the  un 
veiling  of  this  picture,  he  said,  "I  have  selected 
for  the  time  when  your  picture  will  be  unveiled 
and  when  you  will  make  some  remarks  in 
regard  to  it  the  day  when  Dr.  Dexter  from 
Yale  is  to  speak  to  us  about  conditions  in 
college  a  hundred  years  ago."  (Laughter.) 
Well,  the  Lord  has  treated  me  very  well, 
both  in  vigor  and  health,  but  I  want  to  assure 
you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  am  not  in  that 
class.  (Laughter.)  I  hope  to  be  and  cer 
tainly  am  using  every  effort  in  my  power  so 
that  when  the  next  professor,  or  the  Professor 
himself,  I  trust,  extends  his  remarks  and  his 
stories  of  student  life  at  Yale  a  hundred  years 
ago,  I  can  sit  on  the  platform  and  say,  "Yes,  I 
know  all  about  that,  I  was  there. "  (Laughter.) 

[305] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Our  meeting  to-day  is  an  illustration  in  a 
minor  way  of  our  national  situation  and  popular 
characteristics.  A  militaristic  and  autocratic 
government  trains  its  people  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  primarily  for  service  to  the  State. 
When  war  comes  civil  life  practically  ceases, 
and  the  thought  and  power  of  the  people  is 
concentrated  on  the  contest.  We,  on  the 
contrary,  have  developed  as  individuals  and 
our  thinking  and  our  efforts  are  along  peaceful 
lines. 

We  are  in  the  greatest  and  most  savage  war 
of  all  times,  and  our  civilization  and  institu 
tions  are  at  stake.  In  our  first  six  months  we 
have  recruited  half  as  many  men  and  spent 
four  times  as  much  money  as  Lincoln  did 
during  the  whole  Civil  War.  Our  hearts  are 
enlisted  and  our  minds  are  intent  upon  victory. 
Nevertheless,  the  ways  of  normal  peaceful 
living  are  so  deeply  imbedded  that  we  take 
on  war  as  a  necessary  burden.  The  flying 
needles  knitting  comforts  for  soldiers  and  sailors 
are  present  here  and  everywhere,  but  we  enter 
with  keen  enjoyment  with  Dr.  Dexter  into  the 
faculty  and  student  life  at  Yale  during  its  first 
century.  Music  lovers  enjoy  the  opera  and 
concert,  and  the  theatre  and  screen  are  of 
absorbing  interest,  but  we  all  support  the 
President  in  every  effort  and  every  call  for  any 
sacrifice  for  success  for  right,  justice,  humanity 
and  liberty.  'Applause.) 
[  306  1 


Speech  at  the  Luncheon  of  the  Pilgrims  Society, 
in  Honor  of  Brig.  General  William  A.  White, 
R.M.O.,  Bankers  Club,  New  York,  Decem 
ber  18,  1917. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: 

In  these  war  times  greetings  are  frequent 
by  the  Pilgrims  Society  of  New  York  to  the 
visiting  delegations  from  Great  Britain,  and 
by  the  Pilgrims  Society  of  London  to  repre 
sentative  Americans.  We  have  received  here 
every  branch  of  the  service  diplomatic,  mili 
tary,  naval,  trade  and  recruiting,  who  have 
come  to  us  in  this  interchange  of  ideas  and 
experiences.  The  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  have  been  at  peace  for  a  hundred  and 
two  years,  but  during  that  period  there  have 
been  many  occasions  when  friendly  relations 
were  strained  to  a  point  where  war  was  averted 
with  difficulty,  and  after  diplomacy  succeeded 
there  was  left  a  residuum  of  hostile  feelings. 

Our  differences  arose  mainly  from  the  fact 
of  a  general  misunderstanding  of  each  other's 
ideals  and  aspirations  and  a  misunderstanding 
easily  fostered  by  ignorance.  Of  our  vast 
population  very  few  went  abroad  and  we  were 
more  familiar  with  the  stage  type  of  English 
men  represented  by  Lord  Dundreary  than  by 
[307] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

Mr.  Gladstone.  At  the  same  time  the  average 
Englishman  knew  the  stage  Uncle  Sam  better 
than  he  did  Abraham  Lincoln.  Two  years  and 
a  half  of  war,  and  especially  six  months  since 
we  entered  it,  have  done  more  to  make  us 
acquainted,  to  bring  us  together,  than  a  century 
of  peace.  There  is  no  amalgam  like  the  trenches 
and  no  brotherhood  so  strong  as  fighting,  liv 
ing  and  dying,  and  winning  victories  for  the 
same  ends  and  ideals. 

A  hundred  years  ago  autocracy  ruled  the  old 
world,  and  the  United  States  was  alone  of 
democratic  governments,  but  to-day  Great 
Britain  and  her  self-governing  colonies  of  Can 
ada,  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  South  Africa 
have  the  rule  of  the  people  by  representative 
governments.  France  and  Italy  are  highly 
developed  democracies,  so  are  the  Scandina 
vian  governments,  and  Russia,  though  groping 
in  the  dark,  will  find  its  way  to  orderly  liberty. 
Germany,  Austria  and  Turkey  alone  represent 
the  divinity  of  kings,  the  supremacy  of  mil 
itarism  and  the  lust  of  conquest. 

Two  incidents  illustrate  the  perils  of  auto 
cratic  power.  One  is  the  correspondence  be 
tween  the  Kaiser  and  the  Czar,  in  which  Willie 
and  Nickie  treated  independent  nations,  peo 
ples  and  governments  as  if  the  world  was  a 
chess  board  and  these  two  sovereign  players 
could  move  the  pawns  as  they  liked,  regardless 
of  any  rights  or  any  law  except  their  own 

.     [  308  1 


TRIBUTE   TO    GENERAL   WM.    A.    WHITE 

ambitions.     I  do  not  give  the  exact  language, 
but  the  correspondence  ran  like  this : 

Dear  Nickie: 

The  time  has  arrived  when  we  better  take 
over  Denmark.     Love  to  Alice. 

Willie. 
Dear  Willie: 

All    right    about    Denmark.     You    arrange 
details.     Love  to  Victoria. 

Nickie. 
Dear  Nickie: 

We   had   better   include   France.     Love    to 
Alice. 

Willie. 
Dear  Willie: 

I  am  rather  bound  up  with  France,  but  will 
see  you  later.     Love  to  Victoria. 

Nickie. 

The  second  incident  was  the  interview 
granted  by  the  Kaiser  to  Ambassador  Gerard. 
The  Kaiser  shook  his  finger  warningly  in  the 
face  of  the  American  Ambassador  and  said 
threatingly,  "When  this  war  is  over,  I  will 
stand  no  more  nonsense  from  the  United  States." 
This  translated  means,  "I  have  conquered  Bel 
gium,  I  am  on  my  way  to  Paris,  I  will  absorb 
the  wealth  of  France,  I  will  dominate  Great 
Britain,  I  will  conquer  Russia,  and  as  the  spoils 
of  all  the  world  found  their  way  to  Rome,  so 
shall  they  traverse  the  seas  and  the  highways 
[309  [ 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND    FOUR 

to  Germany.  Your  country  is  the  richest  and 
from  your  accumulated  wealth,  exhaustless 
resources  and  enterprising  people,  I  shall  col 
lect  the  largest  toll  of  tribute  and  indemnity." 
But  France  bared  her  breast  to  the  onrushing 
hosts  of  the  Kaiser  at  Verdun  and  said,  "You 
shall  not  pass."  The  British,  with  their 
small  army,  sacrificed  most  of  it  when  the 
French  at  the  Marne,  as  their  ancestors  did 
six  centuries  before,  saved  liberty,  civilization 
and  Christianity. 

The  English  language  to-day  is  taught  in  the 
schools  of  all  nations,  but  is  native  to  a  people 
which  encircles  the  globe.  It  embraces  in  its 
literature  the  best  of  human  thought,  achieve 
ment  and  hope.  It  is  an  inspiring  fact  that 
now  as  the  sun  pursues  its  course  around  the 
earth,  its  morning  rays  are  greeted  in  every  clime 
by  English  speaking  peoples,  united  as  never 
before  in  their  efforts,  in  their  battles  and  in 
their  ideals. 

The  God  of  battles  is  appealed  to  daily  by  the 
contending  hosts,  but  there  are  two  Gods. 
The  poet  Heinrich  Heine,  in  a  famous  prophecy 
eighty  years  ago,  said  that  the  Germans  would 
resurrect  from  their  graves  the  stone  gods  of 
their  ancestors,  and  the  hammer  of  Thor 
would  smash  the  weakness  represented  by 
Christian  cathedrals.  When  the  commander 
of  the  U-boat,  which  sunk  the  Lusitania  and 
drowned  its  passengers;  when  the  commander 
[310] 


TRIBUTE    TO    GENERAL   WM.    A.    WHITE 

of  the  U-boat  summoned  to  his  deck  the  sur 
vivors  of  the  Belgian  Prince,  and  then  sub 
merged  hilariously  leaving  them. in  the  ocean, 
both  were  praised  and  decorated  with  the  iron 
cross,  and  their  acts  were  proclaimed  as  proofs 
of  God's  help.  When  Belgium  was  ravaged 
with  unspeakable  horrors,  when  the  villages 
of  Northern  France  were  destroyed,  their  or 
chards  cut  down,  their  men  killed,  their  women 
outraged  and  deported  into  slavery,  and  it  was 
claimed  that  all  this  was  done  by  the  help  of 
God  and  in  partnership  with  him,  that  God 
was  again  the  stone  god  of  the  German  forests. 
When  the  other  day  the  British  army  captured 
Jerusalem,  and  after  a  lapse  of  six  centuries 
brought  the  sacred  places  under  Christian  rule; 
when  they  sacrificed  thousands  of  lives  to  win 
by  the  bayonet  rather  than  by  shell  which 
would  desecrate  hallowed  temples  and  tombs, 
they  restored  to  the  world  the  spot  where  Christ 
died  for  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  Christ 
whose  doctrines,  uplifting  the  world  for  two 
thousand  years,  have  given  to  us  all  the  bless 
ings  which  we  enjoy,  it  is  that  God  under  whose 
banner  of  the  cross  we  fight,  under  whom  we 
are  united  and  with  whose  blessings  we  will  win. 
I  am  not  discouraged  by  the  troubles  in 
Russia  and  her  present  helplessness.  The 
French  revolution  broke  the  shell  of  Divine 
Right,  but  it  took  generations  to  establish 
orderly  liberty.  Events  move  more  rapidly 

[311] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

with  us  in  these  heroic  days.  A  people  emerg 
ing  from  autocracy  to  democracy  are  expe 
riencing  a  change  of  life.  They  are  hysterical, 
see  visions,  dream  dreams,  but  in  the  evolutions 
of  democracy,  the  people  will  escape  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  mob  as  they  have  from  the 
oppression  of  the  Czars  and  justice,  right  and 
liberty  will  prevail. 

It  is  easy  for  the  directors  of  public  opinion 
in  Germany  to  inspire  the  press  to  teach  the 
people  that  Great  Britain  is  fighting  to  crush 
German  commerce  and  trade  and  industries, 
that  France  is  fighting  for  revenge  and  re- 
conquest  of  her  provinces,  but  the  United 
States  is  puzzling  the  editorial  writer  of  the 
Kaiser.  He  is  worried  by  the  war  message  of 
President  Wilson,  especially  when  he  finds  that 
it  was  so  generally  accepted  by  the  American 
people.  He  is  still  more  worried  when  the 
American  people  six  months  afterwards  with 
unanimity  and  enthusiasm  hail  the  masterly 
statement  of  President  Wilson  a  few  days  since 
in  the  war  message  against  Austria.  In  looking 
for  a  selfish  purpose,  he  writes  that  the  United 
States  desires  to  annex  Switzerland.  Happily 
the  United  States,  its  government  and  its  people 
have  been  interpreted  to  the  German  people 
for  generations  by  the  letters  which  millions 
of  emigrants  have  written  home  describing 
the  prosperity  and  the  freedom  which  have 
come  to  them  in  this  blessed  land. 
[312] 


TRIBUTE   TO    GENERAL   WM.    A.    WHITE 

Thirty  years  ago  I  was  in  Prague,  the  capital 
of  Bohemia,  as  a  tourist.  A  committee  called 
upon  me  and  asked  me  to  go  with  them  to  a 
large  garden  where  were  gathered  thousands 
of  Bohemians.  They  said,  "We  had  with  us 
recently  some  hundreds  of  our  countrymen 
from  the  United  States  who  were  visiting  us. 
They  told  us  such  wonderful  stories  of  your 
country  that  when  we  found  you  were  here 
we  called  to  ask  you  to  tell  us  more." 
Their  band  played  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner" 
and  long  before  we  were  accustomed  to  so  greet 
our  national  anthem  they  arose  and  stood 
uncovered.  No  barrier  can  stop  the  truth. 
The  American  soldiers  in  the  trenches  will  have 
every  appliance  of  modern  warfare,  but  they 
have  more,  they  have  the  purpose,  the  unself 
ish  purpose,  for  which  they  are  there.  They 
are  not  fighting  for  territory,  or  for  loot  or  the 
lust  of  victory,  they  are  not  fighting  for  glory 
or  fame,  they  are  fighting  that  they  may  pre 
serve  for  themselves  and  their  countrymen,  and 
that  they  may  help  all  the  world,  including 
their  present  enemies,  to  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  government  "of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people."  The  immortal  words  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  "All  men  are 
created  equal,  with  unalienable  rights  among 
which  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap 
piness,"  are  with  them.  They  will  go  over  the 
top.  They  will  penetrate  barbed  wire  defences, 
[  313  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

trenches,  dug-outs  and  pill  boxes.  They  can 
not  be  stopped  by  barrages,  machine  guns, 
rifle  fire  or  bayonets.  They  will  penetrate 
the  triple  armor  forged  about  hearts  and 
brains.  The  ideas  of  liberty  will  demoralize 
enemies  and  convert  its  foes. 


314  ] 


Speech  at  the  Inauguration  of  Mr.  Depew  as 
President  of  the  Pilgrims  Society,  Bankers 
Club,  New  York,  Wednesday,  January 
23,  1918. 

Brother  Pilgrims: 

I  have  been  in  active  life  for  sixty-two  years. 
During  that  period  I  have  done  my  best  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  American  citizenship 
and  to  win  such  honors  and  rewards  as  I  could. 
Looking  back  on  this  long  period  and  fully 
appreciating  what  life  has  done  for  me  in  con 
tinuing  health  and  vigor,  mental  and  physical, 
on  the  eve  of  eighty-four,  I  am  content  and 
happy.  Of  the  many  honors  which  have  come 
to  me,  political,  professional  and  social,  none 
has  given  me  more  pleasure  and  pride  than  this 
selection  by  you  at  this  crisis  in  the  world  affairs 
as  President  of  our  Society. 

The  record  of  our  year,  since  our  last  annual 
meeting,  maintains  the  high  standard  of  the 
past.  We  have,  however,  met  with  a  great 
and  irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  our  late 
President,  Joseph  H.  Choate.  No  man  was 
more  perfectly  fitted  for  a  position.  He  was 
our  foremost  American  citizen  in  private  life 
and  had  the  affection  and  admiration  of  his 
countrymen.  During  his  six  years  as  Ambas 
sador  to  Great  Britain,  he  not  only  met  all  the 
requirements  of  his  great  office  with  remarkable 
[315] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

ability,  but  he  impressed  himself,  as  few 
Americans  have  done,  upon  the  people  of 
England.  His  personality  and  his  eloquence 
were  great  factors  in  cementing  the  bonds  of 
unity  between  our  two  countries.  Earlier  than 
most  Americans  he  grasped  the  significance  of 
this  war  and  the  part  which  our  country  should 
take.  He  was  an  advocate  of  preparedness  and 
of  the  United  States  joining  the  Allies  for  com 
mon  purposes  and  common  protection  of  our 
most  cherished  principles  and  ideals.  He  died 
in  service,  and  his  last  days  will  be  a  memorable 
part  of  the  history  of  this  struggle. 

Our  two  societies,  the  one  here  and  the  other 
in  England,  have  been  laboring  successfully 
for  years  to  remove  misunderstandings  and 
promote  friendlier  relations  between  these  two 
great  English-speaking  countries,  and  that 
object  has  been  accelerated  by  the  war  beyond 
the  fondest  dreams  of  the  Pilgrims.  The  rape 
of  Belgium  and  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania, 
with  continued  outrages  and  horrors,  were 
strengthening  ties  until  the  President  brought 
us  all  together  by  his  declaration  of  war  in 
April  last  year.  Lloyd  George,  the  Premier  of 
Great  Britain,  formulated  in  a  wonderful  speech 
the  aims  and  purposes  of  all  the  Allies,  but  Pres 
ident  Wilson  a  few  days  later  in  an  address  to 
Congress,  which  is  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
illuminating  state  papers  in  our  history,  made 
so  clear  and  emphatic  what  we  are  all  fighting 
[316] 


INAUGURATION    SPEECH 

for,  that  his  utterance  has  been  accepted  by  the 
world  as  the  purpose  and  object  of  our  alliance, 
of  our  diplomacies,  armies  and  navies.  When 
the  victory  comes,  as  it  will,  the  greatest  and 
strongest  power  in  men  and  resources  will  sit 
at  the  table  desiring  neither  territory  nor 
indemnity  nor  reward,  but  determined  that 
this  world  shall  hereafter,  so  far  as  the  unity  of 
civilized  nations  can  make  it,  be  a  paradise  of 
peace,  justice,  humanity  and  right. 

We,  who  have  been  laboring  for  many  years 
for  unity  among  English-speaking  peoples,  can 
rejoice  in  a  triumph  where  Great  Britain  will 
develop  along  her  lines,  and  the  self-governing 
colonies  of  Canada,  Australia  and  South  Africa 
according  to  their  conditions,  and  the  United 
States  in  accordance  with  its  genius  and  neces 
sities,  but  together  they  will  have  common 
ideals  and  aspirations. 

If  our  marvelous  prosperity  and  the  wonder 
ful  results  on  the  material  side  which  have  come 
to  masterful  men  have  tended  to  create  classes 
and  class  antagonism,  it  is  one  of  the  beneficent 
results  of  this  war  that  the  equal  draft  of  our 
people  and  their  resources  is  producing  national 
unity.  The  camp  is  the  great  leveler.  The 
country  and  the  city  boys,  the  young  men  of 
the  East  Side  and  of  the  Avenue,  the  product 
of  the  clubs  and  of  the  gangs,  are  occupying  the 
same  tents,  having  the  same  rations,  wearing 
the  same  uniforms,  subject  to  the  same  discipline 
[3171 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  performing  the  same  duties.  They  are 
discovering  that  the  same  manhood,  patriotism 
and  Americanism  are  the  foundation  of  them 
all.  The  gangster  is  becoming  a  gentleman, 
the  gentleman  a  democrat,  and  both  good 
Americans.  If  we  would  preserve  this  healthy, 
vigorous  and  inspiring  democratic  spirit  among 
future  generations  and  provide  for  the  safety 
of  our  country  from  internal  disorders  or  foreign 
foes,  we  must  have  as  part  of  our  permanent 
policy  universal  military  training.  The  un 
expected  and  discouraging  development  in  our 
trial  and  distress  of  racial  disloyalty  has  demon 
strated  that  our  much  boasted  " melting  pot" 
has  proved  a  failure,  but  the  amalgam  of  the 
camp  educates  and  trains  the  soldier  and  the 
citizen  to  be  at  all  times  and  under  all  cir 
cumstances  American. 

We  had  last  week  a  singular  spectacle.  Men 
who  had  come  here  and  having  no  opportunities 
for  rising  above  their  station  in  their  own  coun 
tries,  developed  under  the  hospitality  and  equal 
chances  with  our  own  native  born  into  wonder 
ful  prosperity  and  wealth.  They  have  suc 
ceeded  in  business  and  in  the  professions.  No 
inducement  under  Heaven  could  make  them 
return  to  the  countries  from  which  they  had 
emigrated  and  subject  then-  children  to  the  iron 
rule  of  autocracy  and  militarism,  and  because 
they  were  using  their  position  and  influence 
to  aid  the  enemy  and  defeat  the  United  States, 
[318] 


INAUGURATION    SPEECH 

they  were  arrested  and  put  upon  a  boat  to  be 
sent  to  an  internment  camp  in  the  South. 
They  were  taken  out  of  this  most  inclement 
of  all  seasons,  out  of  the  rigor  and  deprivations 
of  our  insufficient  coal  supply,  to  be  treated 
with  every  comfort  and  every  luxury  under 
the  balmy  skies  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  Every 
shivering  citizen  and  citizeness  who  saw  them 
go  envied  them  their  trip.  What  was  their 
answer?  As  the  boat  passed  the  Statue  of 
Liberty,  they  gathered  at  the  rail  and  sang 
1 1  Deutschland  liber  Alles. ' '  If  Americans  under 
similar  conditions,  and  for  like  offenses,  had 
done  the  same  thing  in  Germany,  they  would 
have  been  lined  against  a  wall  and  their 
journey  to  another  world  would  have  been 
hastened  by  rifle  and  machine  gun. 

We  are  to-day  in  a  controversy  at  Washing 
ton  which  is  interesting  deeply  the  whole 
country.  There  is  a  feeling  everywhere  that 
the  success  of  this  war  depends  upon  the 
absence  of  partisanship.  It  is  the  people's 
war  and  all  parties  are  anxious  for  victory. 
We  have  the  highest  respect  and  the  greatest 
loyalty  for  our  President,  and  we  want  to 
strengthen  his  hands.  We  can  learn  lessons 
from  the  experience  of  our  Allies.  In  the  most 
terrible  of  trials,  they  have  been  taught  and 
slowly  acquired  their  present  policies.  I  was 
in  England  a  month  before  the  war  when 
partisan  politics  were  never  so  fierce.  They 
[  319  ] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

had  reached  a  point  where  civil  war  seemed 
imminent.  I  was  in  London  again  for  several 
months  after  the  war  was  declared.  The  Prime 
Minister  of  England,  who  has  much  of  the 
power  of  our  President,  was  Mr.  Asquith.  He 
is  the  ablest  parliamentarian,  one  of  the  great 
est  debaters  and  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
statesmen  of  his  time.  He  said,  "I  now  see 
that  to  conduct  this  war  successfully  I  must 
have  as  my  coadjutors  the  leaders  of  all 
parties."  He  was  too  conservative  and  was 
succeeded  by  Lloyd  George.  Lloyd  George  for 
twenty  years  had  been  the  most  uncom 
promising  of  partisans.  He  had  fought  with 
out  mercy  the  aristocracy  and  the  Unionist 
party,  but  he  formed  a  War  Cabinet  in  which 
he  placed  Balfour,  the  leader  of  the  Unionists, 
the  strongest  members  of  the  aristocracy  and 
the  ablest  of  the  labor  leaders.  He  tried  to 
put  in  both  factions  from  Ireland. 

I  remember  as  if  it  was  yesterday  the 
inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  one  of  the 
dramatic  episodes  in  our  history.  As  he 
faced  that  vast  crowd  in  front  of  the  Capi 
tol,  few  had  ever  seen  or  knew  much  about 
him.  Surrounding  him  as  his  Cabinet  were 
the  ablest  leaders  in  American  public  Me, 
nearly  all  of  them  his  opponents,  some  from 
his  own  and  some  from  the  other  party. 
The  assembled  people  knew  them  and  all 
about  them. 

f  3201 


INAUGURATION   SPEECH 

Mr.  Lincoln  made  only  one  appointment  on 
account  of  friendship  and  that  was  his  intimate 
friend,  Caleb  H.  Smith,  who  had  been  a  col 
league  in  Congress.  But  Smith  was  not  equal 
to  the  demands  of  that  strenuous  period  and 
was  replaced  by  a  stronger  man,  John  P. 
Usher.  Simon  Cameron  was  appointed  secre 
tary  of  war.  Cameron  was  able,  had  great 
influence  and  power  and  had  been  a  most 
important  factor  in  the  success  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
nomination.  But  when,  after  a  year's  trial, 
Mr.  Lincoln  became  convinced  that  for  a  more 
vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  an  exceptional 
official  was  required,  he  asked  for  Mr.  Cameron's 
resignation.  He  then  astonished  the  country 
by  not  only  going  outside  his  party,  but  by 
selecting  an  uncompromising  Democrat,  who 
had  been  his  most  bitter  and  virulent  critic 
and  had  characterized  him  as  a  gorilla.  So 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  most  energetic,  able 
and  brutal  of  war  secretaries,  had  the  oppor 
tunity  and  won  great  fame.  Mr.  Lincoln  with 
rare  tact  maintained  harmony  among  these 
hostile  elements  in  his  Cabinet.  He  so  utilized 
the  superior  ability  of  each  that  the  country 
had  the  service  of  its  ablest  statesmen.  But 
the  President  was  stronger  because  of  their 
strength.  He  became  and  remained  supreme 
master  and  stands  alone  in  the  people's 
memory  as  the  genius  of  the  reconstruction 
of  our  Union. 

[321] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

The  four  greatest  constructive  statesmen  in 
our  history  are  Alexander  Hamilton,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Daniel  Webster  and  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  If  either  of  them  had  the  responsibilities 
of  this  war,  which  are  greater  than  all  our 
wars  put  together,  he  could  not  have  survived 
the  task,  but  together  then-  united  experience 
and  unequalled  intelligence  would  have  utilized 
all  our  resources  and  consolidated  the  country 
confidently  behind  them.  We  want  President 
Wilson  to  remain  our  President,  we  don't 
want  to  overburden  or  kill  him,  we  want  him 
to  have  at  his  service  all  the  help  there  is  in 
the  demonstrated  brains  of  our  countrymen. 

There  is  a  story  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
children  of  Israel  were  at  the  crisis  of  their 
long  journey  from  Egypt.  Amalek  and  his 
hosts  were  arrayed  against  them.  They  rep 
resented  the  ruthless  aristocracy  and  militarism 
of  that  period.  Moses  sent  out  Joshua  with 
the  army  of  the  Israelites  to  fight.  That  he 
might  watch  and  direct  the  battle,  he  sat  on  a 
hill  and  had  with  him  the  leaders  who  had 
differed  with  him  but  had  the  experience  of 
their  forty  years  of  trial.  When  Moses  held 
up  his  hands,  Joshua  succeeded;  but  when 
through  fatigue  his  hands  fell  down,  the  tide 
of  battle  was  with  the  enemy.  Then  Moses, 
the  most  self-reliant  character  in  sacred  or 
profane  history,  called  for  the  help  of  Aaron 
and  Hur,  who  were  with  him,  and  said  to  them, 
[  322  ] 


INAUGURATION   SPEECH 

"You  stand  on  either  side  of  me  and  hold 
up  my  hands."  The  result  was  that  behind 
Joshua's  army  and  in  its  ranks  the  whole  power 
of  the  Israelites  was  united,  the  victory  won 
and  the  Promised  Land  gained. 


323  ] 


Speech  at  the  Dinner  given  by  Mr.  Julien 
Stevens  Ulman  to  Dr.  Milenko  Vesnitch, 
Representative  of  Serbia,  January  31, 1918. 

Your  Excellency  and  Friends: 

The  characteristic  of  the  United  States  has 
been  its  hospitable  reception  of  peoples  of  all 
nations  since  the  formation  of  our  Government. 
We  have  furnished  an  asylum  for  the  oppressed 
and  opportunities  for  the  ambitious.  We  have 
welcomed  them  all  to  the  equal  liberties,  the 
equal  opportunities  and  the  equal  prospects 
which  we,  ourselves,  enjoy.  We  have  thrown 
open  to  them  our  citizenship  and  given  them 
the  protection  of  our  sovereignty  and  our 
flag.  They  have  all  advanced  in  life  and  their 
children  with  our  common  schools,  high  schools 
and  colleges,  have  reached  the  foremost  posi 
tion  in  every  department  of  American  life. 
The  acid  test  of  their  gratitude,  loyalty  and 
appreciation  has  been  their  attitude  and  con 
duct  during  this  world  war.  The  proof  of 
their  patriotism  is  that  among  so  many  millions 
so  few  have  been  actively  or  sympathetically 
traitors  to  their  adopted  country.  The  great 
mass  have  stood  loyally  by  the  United  States 
and  the  President  in  this  crisis. 

While  this  war  with  the  rigid  military 
[324] 


TRIBUTE   TO   DR.    MILENKO   VESNITCH 

demands  of  their  own  countries  has  stopped 
this  tide  of  emigration,  we  have  had  a  singular 
and  very  delightful  duty  in  welcoming  the 
representatives  of  our  Allies,  with  whom  we  are 
fighting  for  all  that  makes  life  worth  the  living. 
First  came  the  English  Mission,  headed  by  Mr. 
Balfour.  We  owe  a  special  debt  to  this  dis 
tinguished  Statesman  because  as  Prime  Minister 
of  Great  Britain  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
War,  he  prevented  a  European  coalition 
against  us.  The  impressive  idea  in  the  recep 
tion  of  that  mission  was  that,  after  a  hundred 
years  of  peace,  the  English  speaking  peoples 
of  the  world  had  become  so  one  in  their  ideals 
that  we  were  in  a  close  alliance  for  the  same 
world  purposes,  liberties  and  rights.  It  was 
an  inspiring  thought  that  the  example  and 
principles  of  the  American  Revolution  had  so 
permeated  the  Mother  Country  that  their  insti 
tutions  and  liberties  differ  from  ours  in  form 
but  not  in  substance.  There  was  tender 
affection  in  the  welcome  of  the  French.  We 
rejoiced  that  after  a  hundred  and  forty  years 
in  the  crisis  of  the  fate  of  France,  when  she 
was  giving  all  she  possessed  for  her  liberties, 
we  could  reciprocate  in  kind  for  the  help  which 
she  gave  us  in  our  trial  and  without  which 
we  could  not  have  won  our  independence.  We 
had  sympathy  with  the  aspirations  of  Italy, 
and  for  outraged  Belgium  a  grim  determina 
tion  to  act  with  the  representatives  of  liberty 

[3251 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

and  righteousness  for  Belgium's  restoration 
and  reparation. 

And  now,  we  are  glad  to  receive  this  delega 
tion  from  little  Serbia.  Hidden  away  in  her 
mountains  and  so  distant ,  her  trials,  her  suffer 
ings,  her  sacrifices  and  her  patriotism  have 
not  been  so  well  known  nor  come  so  near  to 
us  as  Belgium,  and  yet  to  save  her  sovereignty, 
her  honor  and  her  soul  one-half  of  her  popula 
tion  have  died  upon  the  battlefield,  or  by  out 
rages  upon  the  civil  population,  of  burnings  and 
massacres  and  starvation.  When  the  roll  is 
made  up  of  those  who  have  given  most  and 
suffered  most  for  their  country,  a  front  rank 
will  be  assigned  to  Serbia. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  nations  will  care 
little  for  their  history  prior  to  this  war.  Its 
magnitude  and  its  tragedies  are  so  vast  and 
universal  that  for  present  and  future  generations 
history  will  be  written  as  if  the  whole  of  it  was 
embraced  within  this  war  period.  Macaulay 
made  the  most  fascinating  of  histories  out  of  a 
section  of  the  English  story  and  that  not  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Future  Macaulays  can 
find  events  and  the  evolution  of  principles  far 
more  fascinating  and  thrilling  than  any  in  the 
world's  history  in  every  year  of  this  conflict. 
It  will  give  to  the  world  endless  plots  for  novels 
of  entrancing  and  captivating  charm  and  it  has 
the  materials  for  epics  far  greater  than  came  to 
Homer  or  Virgil  or  Dante,  or  of  dramas  beyond 
[3261 


TRIBUTE   TO   DR.    MILENKO   VESNITCH 

anything  of  Shakespeare.  Great  lessons  are 
taught  in  pictures,  a  single  canvass  will  embrace 
more  of  history  and  suggestion  than  a  library. 
When  we  look  at  a  painting  by  Detaille  of  one 
of  the  battles  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of 
1870,  we  read  the  whole  tragedy  of  the  betrayal 
of  France,  of  her  superb  struggle  for  her  life 
and  of  what  she  lost  because  of  the  overwhelming 
power  of  her  enemy. 

After  this  war  some  great  artist  will  execute  a 
masterpiece  which  will  become  the  greatest  of 
historical  canvases.  It  will  represent  that 
fateful  meeting  in  the  Imperial  Palace  at  Pots 
dam  a  few  months  preceding  the  declaration 
of  war.  The  Kaiser  presided,  the  Crown  Prince 
and  his  brothers  were  there,  the  General  Staff 
was  present  and  the  Chancellor.  The  people 
were  not  represented.  They  never  are  in  a 
military  autocracy.  It  is  for  them  not  to  reason 
why  but  to  do  and  die.  The  General  Staff  said : 
"  After  forty  years  of  preparation  Germany  is 
in  a  position  now  to  conquer  the  world.  We 
have  the  largest  and  best  disciplined  army  and 
the  second  best  navy.  We  have  accumulated 
military  stores  and  supplies  for  over  two  years. 
Belgium  will  not  and  cannot  resist  our  advance. 
We  can  be  in  Paris  in  a  few  weeks  and  before 
France  can  get  ready.  Our  Emperor  controls, 
as  he  has  demonstrated,  the  weak  Czar  Nicholas, 
so  we  have  nothing  to  fear  in  Russia.  We  will 
this  time  make  a  clean  job  of  France,  her 
[327] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

resources  will  be  ample  compensation  for  the 
present  and  immense  revenues  for  the  future. 
We  need  have  no  fear  of  the  interference  of 
England  because  our  Ambassador  informs  us 
that  she  is  on  the  eve  of  civil  war  on  account 
of  the  Irish  question.  After  we  have  conquered 
France  and  are  in  possession  of  the  channel 
ports  of  France  and  Belgium,  Great  Britain 
will  be  glad  to  make  any  terms  for  peace.  Our 
plans  in  the  East  are  so  perfected  that  we  will 
easily  dominate  the  Balkans,  Persian  Gulf, 
Mesopotamia,  Syria  and  Egypt  on  the  one 
hand  and  India  on  the  other  will  be  within  our 
grasp.  Then  Berlin  will  be  like  ancient  Rome 
and  all  Germany  will  share  in  the  tribute 
flowing  in  constantly  increasing  volumes  over 
every  sea  and  from  every  continent  for  our 
power  and  enrichment.  As  for  the  German 
people  we  have  through  our  schools,  colleges  and 
universities,  through  the  pulpit  and  the  press, 
all  of  which  we  inspire  and  control,  infused  them 
with  an  ambition  equal  to  our  own  and  with  a 
belief  that  nothing  can  resist  nor  ought  to  be 
permitted  to  stand  in  the  way  of  our  conquest 
of  the  world.  The  only  thing  necessary  is  to 
find  a  pretext  and  that  the  Chancellor  must  do." 
The  meeting  adjourned  and  the  Crown  Prince 
wild  with  j oy  said,  "Now  we  will  have  a  jolly 
good  war."  The  pretext  was  found  in  the 
murder  of  Archduke  Ferdinand  and  his  wife 
by  a  Serbian  student.  Under  the  dictation  of 

3281 


TRIBUTE    TO   DR.    MILENKO   VESNITCH 

the  German  Government,  Austria  demanded 
of  Serbia  submission  within  twelve  hours  to 
twelve  peremptory  orders.  Serbia,  anxious  for 
peace  and  knowing  that  four  millions  could 
not  resist  a  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of 
Germany  and  Austria,  immediately  assented  to 
eleven  of  these  propositions  and  only  asked  that 
the  twelfth,  which  was  her  sovereignty  as  an 
independent  nation,  might  be  submitted  to  the 
Hague  Tribunal.  According  to  estimates  made 
by  an  English  statesman,  as  the  immediate 
result  of  the  conclusions  of  that  little  gathering 
at  the  palace  at  Potsdam  forty-seven  millions 
of  people,  or  almost  one-half  of  the  entire  pop 
ulation  of  the  United  States,  have  died  in  battle, 
or  of  starvation  or  of  deportations  like  the 
Armenians,  or  of  ruthless  destruction  of  their 
homes  with  themselves  as  in  Belgium,  Northern 
France,  Russia,  Poland  and  Serbia. 

Now  that  we  are  well  along  in  the  fourth 
year  of  the  war  and  that  its  tragedies  are  of  daily 
repetition,  now  that  our  President,  representing 
the  largest  potential  power  in  the  conflict,  has 
said  the  United  States  asks  nothing  for  itself  but 
the  peace,  the  safety,  the  rights  and  the  liber 
ties  of  the  whole  world,  how  do  we  account  that 
the  military  autocracy  of  Germany  can  still 
have  the  loyal  support  of  an  obedient  popula 
tion.  A  population  which  is  equally  suffering 
in  the  loss  of  its  sons  and  in  great  privations, 
but  not  equally  suffering  in  the  devastation  of 
[3291 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

its  cities,  villages  and  homes.  The  answer  is 
that  nations  fight  for  either  patriotism  or  plunder. 
If  it  is  for  patriotism,  they  are  always  ready  for 
peace  with  justice  and  right  and  liberty.  If  it 
is  for  plunder,  then,  as  in  all  cases  of  brigandage 
and  piracy,  the  share  of  each  is  the  continuing 
stimulant.  Patriotism  can  be  merciful  but  piracy 
never.  It  is  always  ruthless  because  it  has  to 
make  sacrifices  for  that  which  it  comes  to  believe 
is  its  own,  and  when  that  belief  is  coupled  with 
partnership  with  God  conquest  has  the  soothing 
of  conscience  and  the  fanaticism  of  religion. 

Of  all  countries  Serbia  has  suffered  most 
cruelly  because  of  this  ruthless  spirit.  She  is 
so  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  enemies  that  the 
Allies  could  give  her  little  help.  Austria  and 
Bulgaria  were  hungry  for  her  land  and  resources. 
Turkey  on  the  other  side  wanted  to  again 
extend  over  her  population  the  oppression, 
extractions  and  murders  of  her  six  hundred  years 
of  rule,  while  Greece  was  unsympathetic  if  not 
actively  hostile.  The  Russian  revolution  had 
paralyzed  the  active  aid  of  that  great  power. 
The  world  has  been  interested  for  three  thousand 
years  in  the  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks 
under  Xenophon,  but  that  army  was  marching 
through  a  hostile  country  which  they  had 
invaded  to  reach  the  sea  and  their  homes. 
Each  succeeding  generation  finds  thrilling  in 
terest  in  the  retreat  of  Napoleon's  grand  army 
from  Russia,  but  in  Serbia  we  have  a  retreat 
[330] 


TRIBUTE    TO   DR.    MILENKO   VESNITCH 

which  will  become  historic,  a  tragedy  without  a 
parallel  and  a  resource  of  most  romantic  interest. 
It  was  the  Serbian  army  driven  through  their 
own  country  across  the  border,  and  to  the  sea, 
accompanied  by  old  men,  women  and  children, 
their  fathers,  their  mothers,  their  brothers, 
their  sisters,  who  preferred  death  itself  to  the 
slavery  with  which  they  were  threatened.  The 
Serbian  army,  refreshed  and  invigorated  among 
its  friends,  has  returned  to  the  front.  It  is  daily 
doing  heroic  service  to  regain  its  homes.  As  a 
bit  of  land  is  recovered,  the  people  come  back 
to  restore  their  devastated  but  loved  homes. 
Our  friend  here  tonight,  the  cultured  statesman, 
the  distinguished  lawyer,  the  man  of  letters, 
in  the  strength  of  his  vigorous  manhood, 
represents  superbly  to  us  a  people  which  can 
neither  be  enslaved  nor  killed,  but  who  in  the 
righteous  adjustments  of  victory  will  come 
again  into  the  independence  which  they  won 
from  Turkey  and  into  the  sovereignty  and  liber 
ty  of  a  progressive  and  unconquerable  people 


[331] 


Speech  at  a  Mass  Meeting  of  the  Citizens  of 
Bates  County,  Va.,  at  Hot  Springs,  July 
4,  1918. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

On  the  Fourth  day  of  July,  1776,  this  day 
was  consecrated  as  a  patriotic  anniversary.  It 
was  to  be  celebrated  forever  by  the  American 
people  in  memory  of  their  charter  of  liberties. 
How  it  was  to  be  celebrated  was  best  indicated 
by  a  speech  attributed  by  Daniel  Webster  to 
old  John  Adams  in  which  he  said :  "I  am  apt  to 
believe  that  it  will  be  celebrated  by  succeeding 
generations  as  the  great  anniversary  festival. 
It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as  the  day  of 
deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God 
Almighty.  It  ought  to  be  solemnized  with 
pomp  and  parade,  with  shows,  games,  sports, 
guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illuminations,  from 
one  end  of  this  continent  to  the  other,  from 
this  time  forward  for  evermore." 

In  its  true  spirit  the  day  was  observed  all 
over  our  country  so  long  as  the  heroes  and  vet 
erans  of  the  Revolution  remained  alive.  It 
gradually  became  neglected  or  perverted  for 
many  reasons,  one,  and  the  principal,  that  its 
due  observance  and  the  lessons  which  it  taught 
were  not  properly  a  part  of  the  curriculum 

[  332  1 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

of  our  schools.  German  unity  in  the  worst  of 
causes,  in  the  most  aggressive,  savage  and  in 
excusable  of  wars,  is  a  lesson  which  teaches 
what  can  be  done  with  a  people  if  taken  in 
infancy  and  every  means  of  instruction  utilized 
for  a  single  purpose. 

Then  again,  some  twenty  millions  of  immi 
grants  came  to  our  land.  They  were  of  many 
races  and  languages,  and  many  traditions  and 
ideals.  Most  of  them  had  only  the  vaguest  ap 
prehension  of  our  Constitution,  our  institutions 
and  our  laws.  They  should  have  learned  our 
national  spirit  and  the  meaning  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence.  Unfortunately  we 
neglected  their  education.  We  permitted  them 
to  form  separate  communities  where  they 
brought  up  their  children  in  their  own  lan 
guages  and  traditions  and  with  a  divided  loy 
alty  between  the  country  from  which  they 
came  and  the  country  in  which  they  acquired 
citizenship,  independence  and  liberty.  They 
celebrated  their  own  national  holidays  and  kept 
alive  the  ideals  and  traditions  of  the  institu 
tions  from  which  they  had  fled  rather  than  the 
Fourth  of  July.  So,  after  a  time  the  Fourth 
of  July  was  observed  as  a  holiday  because 
made  so  by  law  but  instead  of  reviving  and 
reinforcing  the  great  truths  which  it  embodied 
it  became  a  day  purely  of  pleasure,  for  excur 
sions,  picnics,  and  social  entertainments,  for 
dinners  and  dances. 

[333] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

One  of  the  beneficent  results  of  our  entrance 
upon  this  war  is  that  to-day  we  go  back  and 
envision  the  Fourth  of  July,  1776.    We  sit  with 
those  fathers  of  the  Republic  who,  when  they 
signed  their  names  to  the  immortal  Declaration 
of  Independence,  pledged  to  it  also  their  lives, 
their  property  and  their  honor.    We  feel  what 
they  felt,  we  believe  what  they  believed  and  we 
enjoy  the  realization  of  what  was  to  them  only 
an  ardent  and  prayerful  dream.     Their  hopes 
have  been  realized,  and  all  their  visions  have 
come  true.     From  thirteen  colonies   scattered 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  the  principles  which 
they  enunciated  that  day  have  enabled  their 
descendants  and  those  who  came  afterwards  and 
accepted  the  truths  of  their  declaration  to  peo 
ple  a  continent  and  to  build  a  Republic  which 
is  the  most  powerful  nation  in  the  world,  which 
enjoys  all  the  liberties  which  they  promised;  a 
nation  which  has  proved  by  its  142  years  of  ex 
perience  that  the  truths  enunciated  in  1776 
were  immortal.    A  hundred  millions  of  people 
are   to-day,    as   never   before,    assembled   to 
gether,  not  only  to  rejoice  in  what  has  been 
achieved,  not  only  to  glory  in  our  liberties,  the 
equality  of  our  laws,  the  unity  of  our  people, 
our  wonderful  progress  in  material  prosperity, 
the  development  of  our  resources  and  the  uni 
versality  of  a  prosperity  and  industrial  happi 
ness  never  known  before  in  any  nation,  but  to 
return  thanks  to  God  that  he  has  so  signally 
[334] 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

blessed  the  work  which  was  begun  by  those  in 
spired  founders  of  our  Republic. 

To-day,  messages  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  one  of  which  has  been  read  here, 
are  read  also  in  37,000  places  in  all  parts  of  our 
vast  domain  where  the  people  are  gathered  as 
we  are  to  celebrate  in  spirit,  faith  and  hope  the 
Fourth  .Day  of  July. 

But  this  Fourth  of  July  makes  a  record  of 
its  own.  It  is  not  only  celebrated  in  this  un 
precedented  manner  in  the  United  States  and 
in  all  our  outlying  colonies  and  possessions,  but 
it  is  receiving  respect,  recognition  and  observ 
ance  wherever  round  this  globe  there  is  a 
group,  however  small,  of  American  citizens. 
Its  greatest  significance,  however,  is  that  it 
goes  beyond  our  borders  and  penetrates  the 
territories,  the  people  and  the  hearts  of  all  the 
twenty-one  nationalities  who  are  united  under 
one  banner  fighting  for  civilization  and  liberty. 
France  has  made  it  a  national  holiday  and  it  is 
celebrated  there  with  the  same  fervor  with 
which  they  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  their 
liberty  from  tyranny  on  the  14th  of  this  month. 
Our  American  army,  occupying  a  front  of  forty 
miles,  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  Ger 
man  trenches,  have  on  either  side  of  them  the 
French  army  with  its  millions  of  patriots  and 
heroes.  Along  that  whole  line  this  is  a  sacred 
holiday.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  and  the  Tri 
color  of  France  will  be  entwined.  "The  Star 
[335] 


AT   FOUKSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Spangled  Banner"  and  the  " Marseillaise"  will 
alternately  fill  the  air  with  their  inspiring  and 
militant  music.  All  over  France  these  celebra 
tions  will  take  place.  The  President,  Poincare*, 
leading  on  the  civil  side,  and  Foch,  Commander 
in  Chief  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Allies,  on  the 
military. 

Over  a  hundred  years  ago  when  Washington 
died,  Napoleon  directed  that  a  memorial  should 
be  celebrated  by  the  armies  of  France.  That 
was  out  of  respect  and  veneration  for  the  great 
est  of  men  and  the  father  of  the  American 
Republic.  To-day's  celebration  is  not  one  of 
veneration  for  a  great  patriot  but  of  the  brother 
hood  of  men  who  are  united  for  the  greatest 
purpose  for  which  we  can  live  or  for  which  we 
may  die,  and  that  is  the  preservation  in  our 
institutions  of  all  that  makes  life  worth  the 
living. 

The  millions  of  Germans,  Austrians,  Hunga 
rians  and  Bohemians  in  this  country  have  been 
writing  for  generations  to  their  friends  at  home 
of  the  liberties  which  they  enjoy  but  which 
were  denied  to  their  brethren  in  the  home 
land,  of  the  prosperity  which  had  come  to 
them  which  was  impossible  in  the  Fatherland, 
and  of  equality  before  the  law  and  the  ab 
sence  of  classes,  caste,  privilege  and  militarism, 
which  meant  so  much  for  the  prosperity,  the 
independence,  the  character  and  the  future  of 
their  children.  These  letters  brought  more  im- 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

migrants  to  swell  the  millions  already  here. 
They  also  carried  this  information  into  most  of 
the  homes  of  the  enemy's  country.  I  wonder 
—and  it  is  a  pregnant  thought — whether  the 
shouts  and  the  cheers  which  are  carried  over 
No  Man's  Land  into  the  enemy  trenches,  on 
this  eventful  Fourth  of  July  may  not  start  a 
dangerous  inquiry  among  those  who  are  being 
led  to  slaughter  day  by  day  under  the  flag  of 
autocracy  and  militarism.  It  seems  to  me  it 
must  raise  the  question,  what  are  these  Ameri 
cans  rejoicing  about?  They  have  not  been 
here  long  enough  to  be  engaged  in  the  great 
disastrous  and  bloody  battles  of  the  last  three 
years.  They  have  won  no  victories,  why  should 
they  be  shouting  as  if  our  lines  had  broken,  we 
were  routed  and  they  were  on  their  way  to  the 
Rhine?  The  General  Staff  can  suppress  infor 
mation,  the  aristocratic  officers  can  disseminate 
misinformation  and  suppress  the  truth,  but 
after  all  the  stories  and  experiences  which  have 
been  coming  to  them  from  their  relatives  and 
friends  here  for  so  many  generations  a  ray 
of  the  light  of  truth  must  have  penetrated 
the  brains  which  have  been  triple-armored  by 
the  teacher,  the  preacher,  the  journalist,  the 
school,  the  academy,  the  university  and  the  all- 
commanding  and  all-powerful  throne  and  mili 
tarism.  That  ray  of  light  ought  to  admit  into 
the  dullest  brain  this  idea,  "  We  have  fought  and 
our  brethren  have  died,  we  are  fighting  and  we 
[337] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

are  about  to  die  like  the  ancient  gladiators  in 
the  Roman  arena  for  our  Emperor,  his  divin 
ity,  the  continuing  of  the  autocracy,  of  his 
royal  house  and  of  the  aristocracy.  No  bene 
fits  are  to  come  to  us  or  our  children  while 
those  Americans  over  there  on  the  holiday  of 
their  country's  birth  are  shouting  to-day  and 
fighting  to-morrow  that  we  may  not  destroy 
the  liberties  which  have  made  them  great  and 
free  and  that  if  they  win  we  may  also,  as  they, 
enter  into  the  temple  and  receive  its  equal 
blessings." 

To-day  Great  Britain  celebrates  the  Fourth 
of  July.  The  King  and  Queen  and  Parliament 
and  the  people  join  with  our  boys  and  our  citi 
zens  in  paying  honor  to  the  Fourth.  The  base 
ball  club  of  the  American  army  in  England  is 
to  have  a  game  with  a  similar  club  of  the  Cana 
dians  and  the  King  will  throw  the  ball.  The 
day  will  be  celebrated  in  all  the  great  self-gov 
erning  colonies  of  the  British  Empire,  in  Can 
ada,  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  South  Africa. 
Each  of  those  colonies  has  a  government 
founded  upon  our  example  and  with  the  excep 
tion  of  a  sentimental  tie  to  the  mother  country 
are  as  free  in  their  own  affairs  as  we  are.  These 
amazing  and  miraculous  results,  and  this  war 
itself,  came  naturally  in  the  due  course  of 
evolution  from  the  principles  enunciated  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  on  the  Fourth 
day  of  July,  1776.  Listen  to  these  immortal 
[338] 


FOURTH   OF  JULY  SPEECH 

words  which  have  become  the  charter  of  world 
wide  liberty: 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  creator  with  certain  un- 
alienable  rights,  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  that  to 
secure  these  rights  governments  are  insti 
tuted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  that  when 
ever  any  form  of  Government  becomes  de 
structive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the 
people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  insti 
tute  new  government,  laying  its  foundation 
on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  power 
in  such  form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  like 
ly  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness." 

It  was  that  assertion  of  principles  which 
brought  Lafayette  and  the  French  army  and 
navy  to  our  country  and  without  their  aid  we 
could  not  have  won  our  independence.  It  was 
the  absorption  of  these  principles  carried  by 
the  French  army  back  to  France  which,  after 
many  revolutions,  finally  resulted  in  the  pres 
ent  Republic.  It  was  these  principles  carried 
back  by  the  British  army  which  have,  in  the 
course  of  142  years,  changed  the  British  Govern 
ment  from  the  autocracy  of  the  reign  of  George 
III.  to  a  government  under  George  V.  as  demo- 
[339] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

cratic  as  ours  and  more  easily  responsive  to 
public  opinion.  It  was  these  principles  which 
changed  England's  ideas  of  colonial  govern 
ment  and  enabled  Canada  and  Australia  to  be 
come  independent  commonwealths.  It  was 
these  ideas,  when  South  Africa  was  conquered 
which,  instead  of  making  it  a  dependency  of 
the  crown,  created  it  a  self-governing  commu 
nity  and  so  won  the  affections  of  its  people  that 
their  ablest  leader,  civil  and  military,  General 
Smuts,  is  now  a  member  of  the  War  Cabinet  of 
the  British  Empire.  It  was  these  principles 
which  inspired  Garibaldi  and  his  associates  to 
unite  modern  Italy  and  give  to  it  a  limited 
monarchy  and  representative  government,  to 
make  Portugal  a  Republic  and  Belgium  free. 
Their  influence  is  also  felt  in  a  commanding 
way  in  the  institutions  of  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  Holland.  They  are  the  life  of  all 
that  stands  for  order  and  law  and  liberty  in 
South  and  Central  America  and  Mexico.  The 
militarism  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  the 
power  of  the  Hapsburgs  have  prevented  their 
penetrating  Germany  and  Austria.  In  1848  an 
effort  was  made  by  the  best  minds  of  Germany 
to  break  the  Prussian  traditions  but  it  was 
ruthlessly  suppressed  and  gave  to  us  great 
statesmen  like  Carl  Schurz  and  splendid  sol 
diers  like  Sigel. 

German  sympathizers  tell  us  that  the  Reichs 
tag,  the  Lower  House  of  the  German  Parlia- 
[340] 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

merit,  is  elected  by  universal  suffrage  and  has 
free  debate.  That  is  all  the  freedom  it  has. 
For  exercising  that  the  ablest  and  most  con 
structive  leader  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party, 
Liebknecht,  is  now  serving  a  term  in  state 
prison.  No  act  passed  by  the  Lower  House  can 
become  a  law  without  the  approval  of  the  Up 
per  House.  This  is  a  body  appointed  by  the 
Emperor  and  the  various  kings  and  princes  of 
Germany.  The  majority  of  it  is  controlled  by 
the  Emperor  and  his  veto  is  final,  if  by  some 
miracle  anything  which  he  did  not  like  should 
pass  the  Upper  House.  His  autocratic  au 
thority  is  still  more  firmly  entrenched  in  Prus 
sia  where  the  popular  body  is  elected  under  a 
suffrage  so  limited  as  to  give  a  class  the  con 
trol.  The  genius  of  Bismarck  created  modern 
Germany.  He  put  into  ruthless  practice  the 
ideas  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  made  them  a 
living  force  in  German  policy.  Those  ideas  of 
his  great  ancestor  are  the  mainsprings  of  the 
thought  and  action  of  the  Kaiser;  absolutism  at 
home,  the  control  of  every  organ  of  education 
and  of  intelligence;  the  strongest  military  es 
tablishment  in  the  world,  and  under  a  banner 
that  makes  might  right  destroying  the  sover 
eignty  of  weaker  nationalities,  annexing  their 
territory  and  enslaving  their  people. 

This  is  a  world  war  because  it  differs  from  all 
others  that  have  ever  been  fought.    It  is  a  war 
of  ideas.    Ideas  have  no  boundaries,  no  physi- 
[341] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

cal  limits  but  express  the  soul  of  humanity.  The 
free  nations  of  the  world  who  are  enjoying  the 
principles  proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  were  at  peace  with  each  other  and 
with  all  others.  They  were  using  every  means 
known  to  diplomacy  to  maintain  peace  but  the 
autocracy  of  Germany,  after  fifty  years  of  prep 
aration,  began  the  war  for  world  conquest  and 
the  extermination  of  government  by  liberal 
ideas  and  the  consent  of  the  governed.  When 
autocracy  becomes  too  arrogant  it  grows  isolated 
and  is  unable  to  grasp  the  situation  in  liberal 
countries  and  becomes  drunk  with  power  and 
the  allurements  of  conquest.  When  Bismarck 
declared  war  upon  France  he  had  first  carefully 
detached  from  her  Great  Britain  and  Russia. 
When  the  Kaiser  told  Austria  to  declare  war 
upon  Serbia,  he  had  made  no  such  prepara 
tions  but  took  for  granted  these  conditions.  He 
thought  England,  on  account  of  the  Home  Rule 
question  in  Ireland,  was  helpless  and  on  the 
eve  of  civil  war.  He  thought  Russia  was  ex 
hausted  and  impotent  because  of  her  defeat  by 
the  Japanese.  He  thought  the  United  States 
was  of  no  account  whatever.  It  had  neither  a 
navy  to  be  considered,  its  army  was  insignifi 
cant,  its  people  were  untrained,  it  was  unpre 
pared  in  every  element  of  warfare  and  that 
there  were  enough  trained  Germans  in  the 
United  States  to  control  the  situation.  So  the 
Military  Staff  said,  "We  can  conquer  France 

[342] 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

in  six  weeks,  Belgium  is  no  obstacle,  and  with 
France  a  subject  province  and  all  her  resources 
ours  Great  Britain  will  be  forced  to  do  as  we 
wish.  Russia  will  come  under  our  control  auto 
matically,  we  will  enlarge  the  boundaries  of 
Turkey  as  a  subject  state,  drive  the  English 
out  of  India  and  annex  Egypt."  Turning  to 
the  United  States  the  Foreign  Minister  sent  a 
message,  which  was  fortunately  intercepted  by 
our  State  Department,  to  the  Mexican  presi 
dent  in  which  he  said,  "We  want  your  friend 
ship,  we  will  give  you  all  the  aid  you  need  and 
we  will  transfer  to  you  from  the  United  States 
Texas,  New  Mexico,  Colorado  and  Oklahoma." 

The  German  Military  Staff  and  the  Kaiser 
were  mistaken  about  Russia,  they  made  a 
frightful  blunder  about  France,  a  tragical  error 
about  Great  Britain  and  a  monumental  miscal 
culation  about  the  United  States. 

For  over  a  hundred  years  we  followed  the  ad 
monitions  of  Washington  and  kept  rigidly  with 
in  the  political  atmosphere  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere.  But  Washington  and  his  com 
patriots  could  not  foresee  how  steam  and  elec 
tricity  would  unite  the  world.  Our  isolation 
has  been  broken  because  we  have  grown  larger 
and  the  earth  has  grown  smaller.  When  I  was 
appointed  Minister  to  Japan  fifty-two  years 
ago  it  took  six  months  to  get  there  and  six 
months  to  return.  Every  communication  be 
tween  the  two  governments  required  a  year. 
[3431 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Prince  Arthur  of  Connaught  left  Washington  the 
other  day  for  Japan  and  in  two  weeks  was  in 
Tokio.  The  next  morning  he  presented  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  a  commission  from  the  British 
Government  appointing  the  Emperor  to  a  high 
command  in  the  British  army.  A  full  account 
of  the  event  and  the  ceremonies  appeared  in 
our  evening  papers  the  same  day.  Arlington 
talks  by  wireless  with  the  Eiffel  Tower  in  Paris 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  speaks  to  the 
American  Admiral  six  thousand  miles  away  in 
Honolulu  over  a  wireless  telephone.  In  spite 
of  ourselves  and  our  traditions  we  are  a  part  of 
the  family  of  nations.  Through  centuries  of 
struggle  for  some  basis  of  justice  upon  which 
the  world  could  exist  and  commerce  and  com 
munication  be  free  there  has  been  builded  in 
ternational  law  accepted  by  all  civilized  peo 
ples.  Treaties  have  been  compacts  as  solemn 
as  the  honor  and  faith  of  nations  can  make 
them.  When  Germany  declared  through  her 
Chancellor  that  treaties  were  only  scraps  of 
paper  to  be  torn  in  pieces  at  the  will  of  the 
stronger  party  our  sovereignty  was  attacked 
and  our  future  imperilled  as  well  as  that  of  lit 
tle  Belgium  and  Republican  France.  Interna 
tional  law  provides  clear  rules  for  the  protec 
tion  of  non-combatants  on  the  land  and  on  the 
sea.  The  desolation  of  cities  and  villages  and 
farms  in  Belgium  and  Northern  France,  the 
ruthless  deportation  of  young  men  and  young 
[344] 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

women  into  slavery  from  these  countries  into 
Germany  and  the  doctrine  of  frightfulness  were 
intended  to  scare  the  people  of  the  United 
States.    When  the  Lusitania  was  sunk  and  its 
women  and  children  drowned  it  was  an  attack 
upon  international  law  and  of  the  Hague  Tri 
bunal  to  which  we  were  parties  and  every  sub 
sequent  sinking  by  a  submarine  was  an  attack 
upon  us.     Only  night  before  last  a  Canadian 
hospital  ship  carrying  wounded  and  immune  by 
international  law  was  within  seventy  miles  of 
the  Irish  coast,  the  Red  Cross  was  blazing  in 
electric  lights  from  her  sides  and  from  her  mast 
head,  when  she  was  torpedoed  by  a  German 
submarine  and  sunk  in  ten  minutes.    There  was 
no  opportunity  for  the  helpless  wounded  to  be 
carried  to  the  boats  and  some  of  the  boats  were 
shelled.    There  seems  to  have  been  a  slight  tre 
mor  of  conscience  in  the  German  commander 
for  he  said  he  sunk  that  hospital  ship  because 
he  thought  there  were  some  American  aviators 
on  board.    There  were  no  American  aviators  on 
board  but  there  are  American  aviators  sailing 
over   the  front   and   over   the   German  lines, 
where  a  quarter  million  of  American  soldiers 
are  in  the  trenches  to-day  with  another  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  in  reserve  in  their  rear. 

The  German  General  Staff  said  the  Ameri 
cans  are  cowards  to  hearten  their  people  and 
their  army  but  their  army  has  discovered  in  the 
last  few  days  at  Chateau-Thierry  and  the  vil- 
[345] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

lage  of  Cantigny  and  Belleau  Woods  that  again 
the  German  high  command  had  made  a  tragi 
cal  mistake.  When  we  entered  the  war  it  was 
announced  that  the  indemnity  which  would  be 
exacted  from  us  by  Germany  would  be  eighty- 
seven  billions  of  dollars,  nearly  half  the  valua 
tion  of  the  property  in  the  United  States.  Ac 
cording  to  this  morning's  papers  the  German 
government  has  reduced  that  demand  to  forty- 
seven  billions. 

Sixty- two  years  ago  I  delivered  my  first  Fourth 
of  July  oration.  I  had  just  graduated  from  Yale 
and  returned  to  my  native  village.  We  still  lived 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Revolution  and  there 
were  many  on  the  platform  and  in  the  audience 
who  were  old  enough  to  remember  all  its  strug 
gles,  its  passions  and  its  sacrifices,  but  if,  as  I  be 
lieve,  those  who  have  gone  to  the  other  world  know 
what  is  happening  in  this,  George  III.  must  be 
subject  to  varying  emotions.  He  was  an  almost 
absolute  monarch,  but  the  power  of  the  throne 
has  been  transferred  from  time  to  time  to  the 
Parliament  to  such  an  extent  that  now  the 
king  can  do  nothing  whatever  without  the  con 
sent  of  the  people's  representatives. 

When  we  entered  the  war  a  year  ago  the 
American  flag  flew  from  the  House  of  Parlia 
ment  in  London,  the  King  and  the  Queen,  the 
Common  and  Lords,  with  a  vast  assemblage, 
met  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  and  stood  rever 
ently  while  through  the  aisles  and  in  the  air  of 

[346] 


FOURTH   OF  JULY   SPEECH 

that  ancient  temple  floated  the  music  of  "The 
Star  Spangled  Banner."  In  the  Guildhall, 
the  home  of  the  power  of  the  great  City  of 
London,  there  is  a  statue  of  George  III.  On 
one  side  of  it  is  the  British  flag  and  on  the 
other  the  American.  Among  that  congregation 
in  the  other  world  watching  this  great  conflict 
are  George  III.,  George  Washington,  Napoleon 
and  Bismarck.  I  believe  that  George  III.  and 
Napoleon  are  rejoicing  with  Washington  and 
that  Bismarck  regrets  his  handiwork. 

Four  years  ago  the  Fourth  of  July  was  cele 
brated  in  Paris  at  the  tomb  of  Lafayette  and 
at  a  banquet  in  the  evening.  The  French  Gov 
ernment  sent  to  the  tomb  a  Cabinet  Minister, 
the  Commander  in  Chief  of  their  Army,  and 
an  Admiral  of  their  Navy.  The  United  States 
was  represented  by  that  most  accomplished, 
successful  and  efficient  Ambassador  Myron  T. 
Herrick.  I  delivered  the  address  on  behalf  of 
the  folks  at  home.  It  was  a  peaceful  as  well  as 
an  inspiring  occasion.  It  was  only  four  short 
weeks  from  that  date  that  Germany  launched 
the  bolt  which  she  thought  was  to  subdue  not 
only  France  but  the  world. 

I  recall  the  dramatic  and  vital  part  which 
Lafayette  played  in  American  Independence. 
When  our  affairs  were  in  their  most  desperate 
condition  he  went  to  France  and  appealed  to 
the  King  and  Queen.  The  French  Minister  of 
Finance  said  that  he  so  captured  the  Court  that 
[347] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

if  he  had  asked  he  not  only  would  have  taken 
the  French  army  and  navy  but  also  the  Court 
with  him  to  America.  The  French  army  and 
French  fleet  and  many  millions  of  gold  came  to 
our  aid  at  this  critical  juncture  and  enabled  us 
to  end  the  Revolution  and  make  a  triumphant 
peace.  That  debt  has  never  been  repaid.  The 
money  given  to  us  and  expended  in  the  expe 
dition  was  so  great  that  it  bankrupted  France, 
but  to-day  there  are  a  million  of  our  soldiers  in 
France  fighting  for  her  as  she  fought  for  us. 
To-day  ninety  ships  will  be  launched  from 
American  shipyards  to  carry  more  troops  to 
join  their  brethren.  One  year  ago  Gen.  Persh- 
ing  and  the  first  of  our  expeditionary  forces 
were  in  France.  There  was  again  the  celebra 
tion  at  the  tomb  of  Lafayette.  The  President 
and  the  Cabinet  of  France  were  represented. 
Gen.  Joffre  lent  his  great  presence  and  reputa 
tion  to  the  occasion.  The  speeches  of  the 
French  statesmen  and  soldiers  were  most  elo 
quent  and  appreciative  but  to  the  spirit  of  the 
patriot  and  soldier  who  had  done  so  much  for 
us  and  who  was  hovering  over  his  last  resting 
place  the  most  eloquent  of  all  the  addresses 
was  that  which  condensed  so  much  in  a  single 
sentence.  Gen.  Pershing  approached  the  tomb, 
saluted  and  said,  "  Lafayette,  we  are  here/7 

I  hear  frequently  the  question,  "  What  are  we 
to  gain  by  this  war?"    What  does  any  people 
gain  when  piracy  is  suppressed?    What  does  a 
[348] 


FOURTH   OF   JULY   SPEECH 

community  gain  when  a  lunatic  running  amuck 
with  a  knife  or  a  pistol  is  either  arrested  or 
killed?  But  it  is  not  only  our  safety,  comfort 
and  happiness  against  the  ruthless  savagery  of  a 
merciless  enemy  that  is  to  be  won  by  this  war. 
When  the  Kaiser  said  to  our  Ambassador,  Mr. 
Gerard,  with  threatening  finger,  "  After  this  war 
I  will  not  stand  any  nonsense  from  the  United 
States/7  it  was  more  than  a  threat  between 
man  and  man  because  according  to  European 
standards  and  especially  the  ideas  of  Germany, 
the  Kaiser's  insult  was  the  voice  of  Germany 
and  the  ambassador,  if  he  is  from  a  monarchy, 
is  the  king,  if  from  a  Republic  he  is  the  people. 
At  the  council  table  where  will  be  gathered 
the  representatives  of  all  the  nations  the  United 
States  will  sit  at  the  head.  Already  our  leader 
ship  is  recognized,  already  the  principles  and 
terms  of  peace  as  laid  down  by  President  Wil 
son  are  accepted  by  all  the  Allies  and  are  being 
fought  for  by  the  combined  armies  under  the 
command  of  Gen.  Foch.  We  will  have  a  unity 
of  English  speaking  peoples  never  known  be 
fore.  It  is  a  wonderful  omen  for  the  future 
that  English  speaking  peoples  who  now  have 
all  round  the  world,  under  whatever  flag  they 
may  be,  the  same  ideas  of  liberty,  justice  and 
humanity,  shall  act  together  for  civilization 
and  freedom.  We  will  have  a  unity  and  broth 
erhood  among  ourselves  which  has  never  exist 
ed  before.  I  met  several  soldiers  from  Camp 
[3491 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

Jackson  in  Florida  and  said  where  are  you 
from?  They  said  we  are  all  chums.  I  am  from 
New  York,  I  from  Massachusetts,  I  from  South 
Carolina,  I  from  Texas,  I  from  Oklahoma.  The 
camaraderie  of  the  tent,  of  common  service, 
common  danger,  common  victories,  is  a  tie 
stronger  than  blood,  but  among  these  lads  and 
all  our  lads  it  is  also  a  tie  of  blood,  and  the 
discovery  which  is  the  greatest  for  free  people, 
that  under  the  flag  there  are  no  classes  and 
conditions,  only  American  citizens. 


350 


Address  at  the  Unveiling  of  Mr.  Depew's 
Statue  in  Depew  Park,  Peekskill,  N.  Y., 
September  24,  1918. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  will  make  a  brief  statement  as  to  the  origin 
and  evolution  of  the  suggestion  which  has  re 
sulted  in  this  occasion. 

Mr.  Franklin  Couch  is  the  highest  authority 
on  the  early  history  of  this  town,  and  has  made 
valuable  contributions  to  the  records  of  men  and 
events  of  those  early  days.  He  suggested  to  me 
several  times  that,  while  I  was  living,  there  should 
be  a  statue  in  this  park.  He  said,  which  is  true, 
that  the  difficulty  with  most  statues  is  that 
they  are  made  long  after  the  death  of  the  sub 
ject  and  the  recreation  has  to  come  from  photo 
graphs  and  personal  recollections.  They  are  the 
only  guide  for  the  artist  and  his  work  is  rarely 
satisfactory. 

The  sculptor,  Mr.  Sigurd  Neandross,  has  in 
the  work  now  before  us  been  successful.  His 
creation  is  in  the  judgment  of  those  who  have 
studied  it  a  happy  combination  of  artistic  merit 
and  likeness  of  his  subject. 

I  was  very  happy  to  join  with  my  fellow  citi 
zens  in  placing  here  last  year  the  memorial  of 
my  old  friend,  General  James  W.  Husted. 
When  Mr.  Couch  again  suggested  that  now 

[351] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

would  be  the  appropriate  time  for  me  to  be 
near  my  friend,  I  accepted.  General  Husted 
and  I  were  fellow  students  at  Yale  sixty-six 
years  ago.  We  studied  law  together  and  were 
on  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy  until  his  death 
twenty-five  years  ago.  There  is  to  me  a  tender 
sentiment  that,  as  the  years  roll  by,  after  I  have 
passed  away,  the  story  of  this  long  and  unusual 
friendship  will  be  perpetuated. 

I  am  very  happy  that  my  friend,  Sanford 
R.  Knapp,  participates  in  these  exercises.  I 
joined  Mr.  Knapp  as  a  student  at  the  Peekskill 
Academy  in  1840,  seventy-eight  years  ago.  We 
were  both  prepared  there  for  college,  he  went 
to  Princeton  and  I  to  Yale.  After  graduation 
we  were  united  again  in  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  Edward  Wells  and  that  friendship  and 
camaradarie  has  continued  unimpaired  during 
almost  fourscore  years. 

The  question  has  often  been  asked,  and  oc 
casioned  much  dispute,  as  to  where  is  the  most 
fortunate  location  for  a  boy  to  be  born  and  pass 
the  formative  period  of  his  life.  Some  claim 
it  is  Paris  because,  on  account  of  the  manifold 
attractions  of  that  city,  every  good  American 
if  not  privileged  to  visit  it  during  life,  goes 
there  for  a  while  after  his  death,  but  the  most 
eminent  and  successful  Frenchmen  were  not 
born  in  Paris  but  in  the  provinces.  Paris  is  a 
post-graduate  course.  Some  say  London,  but 
the  same  is  true  of  this  most  prominent  of  cities. 
[352] 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

Ever  since  history  and  romance  have  recorded 
the  wonderful  story  of  Dick  Whittington  going 
from  the  country  in  Gloucestershire  at  the  age 
of  thirteen  to  seek  his  fortunes  in  London,  and 
becoming  thrice  its  Lord  Mayor,  it  is  admitted 
that  the  wonderful  careers  of  great  Englishmen 
did  not  begin  within  the  sound  of  Bow 
Bells. 

We  are  proud  of  the  growth  of  New  York 
City.  We  glory  in  its  supremacy  as  the  metrop 
olis  of  the  western  world.  We  see  it  rapidly 
becoming  the  financial  center  of  the  whole  earth. 
It  is  unexcelled  in  its  educational  system  from 
the  kindergarten  to  the  university;  in  its  pro 
fessional  schools  of  law,  theology  and  medicine 
and  its  technical  schools  of  music,  art,  engi 
neering  and  electricity,  but  it  is  rare  to  find  in 
its  eventful  history  a  leader  in  any  branch  who 
was  born  and  passed  his  early  life  within  its 
boundaries.  Most  of  them  came  to  New  York 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  in  the  fierce 
competitions  of  metropolitan  life  are  the  sur 
vivals  of  the  fittest. 

Well,  then,  you  naturally  inquire,  "what  is 
the  best  place  in  the  world  for  a  man  to  be 
born  and  prepared  for  the  inevitable  contest 
with  the  world  which  decides  his  place  in  the 
sun?"  I  answer  unhesitatingly  "Peekskill!" 
The  reasons  are  obvious.  They  still  prevail 
though  they  were  stronger  in  the  earlier  and 
more  primitive  days.  During  my  boyhood  and 

[353] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

youth,  Peekskill  was  a  village  of  between  three 
and  four  thousand  inhabitants.  It  was  far 
enough  from  New  York  so  that,  as  the  trans 
portation  during  that  period  was  mainly  by  the 
river,  there  was  very  little  invasion  of  wealthy 
residents  from  the  city.  At  the  same  time,  it  was 
sufficiently  near  the  metropolis  for  those  who 
were  old  enough  to  enjoy  its  advantages.  The 
characteristic  of  the  village  was  neighborliness. 
The  greatest  war  of  all  times  is  now  in  progress 
with  the  avowed  object  of  making  the  world 
fit  for  democracy,  but  the  village  through  its 
neighborliness  is  a  school  of  democracy.  Every 
one  knew  everybody,  sympathized  with  their 
sorrows  and  rejoiced  in  their  success.  The 
church  was  the  center  of  all  our  activities, 
every  denomination  was  represented  and  doing 
active  work.  Churchgoing  was  universal  and, 
among  its  members,  their  gatherings  were  not 
only  devotional  but  social.  No  class  distinction 
existed,  the  people  of  the  congregation  met  fre 
quently  to  work  not  only  for  themselves  but 
for  the  whole  community,  and  in  the  larger  work 
of  domestic  and  foreign  missions.  There  was 
universal  acquaintance  among  young  people, 
some  went  to  the  common  schools  and  some  to 
the  Academy.  The  graduations  from  the  com 
mon  school  to  the  Academy  were  constant 
among  the  brighter  boys  who  had  greater  am 
bitions  and  broader  aims.  After  leaving  school 
they  separated,  some  starting  on  the  lowest 
[3541 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

rung  of  the  ladder  in  the  foundries,  some  in  the 
mercantile  houses,  some  on  the  farms,  some  in 
the  professions,  but  they  had  all  been  boys  to 
gether.  I  find  that  in  the  city  these  conditions 
are  impossible,  one's  friends  are  scattered  all 
over  town,  and  in  the  constant  changes  inci 
dent  to  metropolitan  life,  one  rarely  knows  a 
half  a  dozen  families  on  the  block  where  he 
lives. 

The  next  advantage  which  Peekskill  has  is 
its  patriotic  associations.  I  know  of  no  place 
in  the  country  which  has  so  many.  Every  les 
son  so  necessary  to  be  learned  in  the  present 
great  conflict  is  taught  by  our  hills  and  valleys. 
On  the  campus  of  the  Academy  is  the  oak 
from  one  of  whose  limbs  was  hung  a  spy  during 
the  Revolution.  Gallows  Hill  nearby  was  so 
named  because  of  the  famous  event  when  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  sent  a  message  to  General  Put 
nam  saying  "  Edmund  Palmer,  an  officer  of  our 
army,  has  been  captured  by  you  and  I  demand 
his  immediate  exchange"  and  threatening  ven 
geance  if  the  sentence  upon  him  as  a  spy  was 
carried  out. 

General  Putnam  sent  this  brief  reply: 

"  Headquarters,  Aug.  7,  1777. 

"  Edmund  Palmer,  an  officer  in  the  Enemies' 

service,  was  taken  as  a  spy  lurking  within  our 

lines.    He  has  been  tried  as  a  spy,  condemned 

as  a  spy,  and  shall  be  executed  as  a  spy,  and 

[3551 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

your  flag  of  truce  is  ordered  to  depart  immedi 
ately. 

"  Israel  Putnam. 

"P.  S. — He  has  accordingly  been  executed."* 

This  village  was,  during  the  whole  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  a  headquarters  of  the 
American  army.  General  Washington  was  a 
frequent  visitor  here,  so  were  Lafayette  and 
Alexander  Hamilton.  Rochambeau  was  also 
entertained  here  with  his  staff.  Only  about 
thirty  miles  separated  the  lines  of  the  American 
and  British  armies.  The  interval  was  called 
the  neutral  ground  and  occupied  by  a  popula 
tion  nearly  equally  divided  between  Revolu 
tionists  and  Loyalists.  The  result  was  that  for 
seven  years  there  was  intense  military  activity 
in  and  around  our  village.  Within  a  short  dis 
tance  occurred  the  whole  tragedy  and  also  the 
patriotic  lesson  of  the  capture  of  Major  Andre". 
Drum  Hill,  within  our  village  limits,  was  the 
playground  of  the  children.  From  some  pe 
culiar  formation  of  the  ground  an  echo  could 
always  be  had  by  stamping  upon  the  sod.  It 
was  a  tradition,  which  the  boys  at  least  be 
lieved,  that  the  thunder  of  the  guns  planted 
on  the  hill  by  our  artillery  forces  during  the 
Revolution  had  become  so  imbedded  in  its  soil 
and  rocks  that  it  was  possible  at  any  time,  by 

"This  story  has  been  mentioned  once  before  in  this  volume, 
but  its  historical  value  is  such  that  it  may  well  be  told  twice. 

[356] 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

any  crowd  of  boys,  to  receive  a  reminder  of  the 
sacrifices  made  for  liberty  by  drawing  out  an 
echo  of  patriotic  artillery. 

One  of  our  frequent  excursions  was  to  climb 
up  the  mountain  to  the  north  to  find  if  possible 
the  hiding  place  and  watch-tower  so  graph 
ically  described  as  the  home  of  the  spy  in  Feni- 
more  Cooper's  famous  novel  of  that  name. 

Scenery  does  much  in  developing  healthy 
imagination  and  artistic  ambitions.  There  is 
nowhere  in  the  country  greater  beauty  than  is 
to  be  found  on  our  glorious  Hudson  River,  in 
^  our  bay  and  its  surrounding  mountains  with 
their  legends.  The  Dunderberg  opposite,  the 
Storm  King  beyond  and  Anthony's  Nose  on 
this  side  have  been  enveloped  by  the  genius  of 
Washington  Irving  with  romance  and  mystery, 
which  increases  in  interest  with  the  years. 
There  was  infinite  inspiration  to  research, 
study  and  reading  in  Irving' s  stories  of  the 
Headless  Horseman,  of  Sleepy  Hollow  and  of 
Rip  Van  Winkle  which  were  located  all  about 
us. 

During  those  early  days,  the  newcomers  to 
the  village  were  principally  from  New  England. 
Most  of  the  families  here  had  been  resident  for 
many  generations.  Washington  Irving' s  His 
tory  of  New  York,  which  was  universally  read 
and  generally  believed,  had  added  to  the  local 
suspicions  of  the  Yankees.  Washington  Ir 
ving' s  story  of  Wolfert's  Roost  where  the  cock 

[357] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

on  his  barn,  who  refused  to  turn  with  the 
varying  winds,  but  kept  a  watchful  eye  constant 
to  the  East  to  warn  against  a  Yankee  invasion, 
and  fell  a  victim  to  his  loyalty  by  being  hurled 
from  his  perch  in  a  gale,  had  more  influence 
on  local  opinion  than  the  father  of  American 
literature  ever  expected.  The  land  was  mainly 
owned  by  these  old  families,  and,  in  their  con 
ferences,  the  principal  questions  discussed,  be 
sides  heated  politics,  were  the  innovations  urged 
by  these  Yankee  newcomers.  They  were  satis 
fied  that  generation  after  generation  had  lived 
to  a  good  old  age  and  died  happy  without  any 
of  this  public  water  system  and  public  sewage 
system,  and  paved  streets,  and  widened  side 
walks,  and  a  health  officer,  and  sanitary  laws, 
all  of  which  meant  more  taxes.  Even  the  sweet 
voices  of  lovely  women  will  now  say  "damn 
the  Kaiser/'  but  in  those  early  days  a  confer 
ence  of  our  residents  would  frequently  break  up 
with  a  chorus  of  "damn  the  Yankees." 

Among  those  Yankees  who  did  so  much  for 
our  town,  I  recall  Dr.  Brewer.  He  was  a  man 
of  education,  broad  views  and  a  courageous  re 
former.  He  was  the  earliest  temperance  advo 
cate  we  ever  had  in  Westchester  County,  but 
he  did  one  thing  for  which  I  owe  him  a  great 
debt.  He  established  a  circulating  library. 
His  taste  ran  to  the  English  classics  and  his 
advice  was  sound  for  those  who  were  ambitious 
to  secure  the  benefits  which  his  library  offered. 

[358] 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

I  think  I  read  every  book  in  his  collection. 
The  Waverley  Novels  I  repeatedly  devoured.  I 
never  have  known  since  the  interest  and  fasci 
nation  there  was  as  the  volumes  of  Thackeray 
and  Dickens  appeared  and  were  placed 
in  Dr.  Brewer's  library.  I  could  almost  re 
peat  the  writings  of  Washington  Irving  and 
Fenimore  Cooper  who  were  both  of  our  neigh 
borhood.  We  had  few  magazines  in  those  early 
days  but  the  English  and  Scotch  Reviews  were 
taken. 

For  many  years  an  uncle  of  mine  was  Post- 
master.  On  returning  from  the  Academy  for 
home,  he  would  permit  me  behind  the  boxes  to 
slip  the  magazines  and  reviews  from  their  cov 
ers  and  read  them  before  they  came  to  their 
owners.  I  have  often  wondered  as  a  question 
of  ethics  whether  this  appropriation  of  current 
literature  and  discussion,  which  added  so  much 
to  my  education  and  whose  loss  the  owners 
never  knew  or  felt,  was  an  excusable  per 
formance. 

The  other  day  the  Lent  family,  very  nu 
merous  now,  had  their  annual  celebration.  The 
ancestor  of  the  Lents  and  my  ancestor  were 
the  patentees  of  the  land  upon  which  Peekskill 
now  stands  and  where  we  are,  under  what  is 
known  as  the  Rycks  Patent.  Subsequently  the 
grantees  divided  the  property,  and  this  park 
came  to  the  one  from  whom  I  am  descended. 
This  Patent  was  originally  granted  by  the  In- 
[3591 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

dians  and,  after  the  conquest  of  New  York  by 
the  English,  was  confirmed  by  the  English 
Governor  Dongan.  While  streets  and  residences 
have  in  the  main  obliterated  all  there  was  of 
that  early  transaction  with  the  Indians,  this 
park  will  remain  forever  as  a  memorial  of  just 
dealings  by  bargain  and  sale  with  the  aboriginal 
owners  of  our  country. 

I  recall  one  incident  of  our  early  days  which 
had  an  influence  upon  our  merchants.  The 
leading  merchant  was  named  Christian;  he  was 
the  most  successful  of  any.  From  his  profits  he 
became  one  of  the  largest  property  owners  in  ^ 
the  town.  His  neighbors  formed  a  committee 
to  ascertain  what  was  the  source  of  his  pros 
perity.  They  said,  "You  must  rob  us  in  some 
way,  otherwise  we  would  do  as  well."  "No," 
said  Mr.  Christian,  "I  am  a  Christian  not  only 
in  name  but  in  business.  I  have  an  invariable 
rule  to  make  a  profit  of  only  one  per  cent." 
A  further  investigation  developed  the  fact  that, 
in  the  simple  and  honest  mind  of  this  merchant, 
one  per  cent  meant  just  double  the  cost. 

My  first  commercial  transaction,  which  hap 
pened  a  few  days  after  I  opened  my  law  office, 
was  with  a  very  enterprising  and  speculative 
neighbor  of  mine  with  the  ambitious  name  of 
"Napoleon  Bonaparte."  He  said  to  me,  "If 
you  will  loan  me  ten  dollars,  I  can  double 
it,  if  not  more.  I  will  open  a  fruit  stand 
at  the  camp  meeting  now  in  session  at  Ver- 

[3601 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

planck's  Point."  A  few  days  afterwards  the 
crestfallen  Napoleon  came  into  my  office  and 
said,  "I  am  bankrupt.  A  customer  bought  a 
watermelon,  gave  me  a  ten  dollar  bill  and  I 
returned  him  nine  dollars  and  seventy-five 
cents  in  good  American  money.  The  bill  was 
counterfeit  and  my  capital  lost."  Napoleon 
had  met  his  Waterloo.  That  was  sixty  years 
ago  and  the  transaction  still  remains  unsettled. 
It  was  very  fortunate  for  our  village  that 
early  in  its  history  some  enterprising  citizens 
founded  the  Peekskill  Academy.  This  venerable 
eau<j|tional  institution  has  always  been  the 
pride" and  hope  of  our  town.  High  Schools  came 
jvitbJh  recent  years  but  the  Academy,  which 
served  the  purpose  both  of  a  High  School  and 
a  preparatory  school  for  college,  largely  filled 
their  place.  Its  influence  has  been  incalculable. 
I  recall  the  boys  it  sent  out  during  the  period 
of  Mr.  Knapp  and  myself.  There  was  never  a 
failure  among  them  and  many  attained  large 
places  at  the  bar,  in  the  pulpit,  in  medicine,  in 
education  and  in  business.  There  rises  before 
me  a  vision  very  distinct  of  fourscore  years. 
I  remember,  as  if  it  were  yesterday,  when  at 
four  years  of  age  my  mother  took  me  to  the 
school  of  Mrs.  Westbrook,  the  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Doctor  Westbrook,  one  of  the  original  thinkers 
and  writers  of  his  day.  Few  men  did  more  to 
direct  the  reading  and  thought  of  those  who 
came  under  his  influence.  He  dined  at  my 

[3611 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

grandfather's  house  very  frequently  and  made 
me  as  familiar  with  the  characters  in  Greek  and 
Roman  history  as  if  I  had  been  at  a  Classical 
school.  I  have  never  heard  since  from  all  the 
great  orators  any  word  picture  which  equalled 
the  old  doctor's  description  of  the  Roman  Gen 
eral  Marius  sitting  after  his  defeat  amidst  the 
ruins  of  Carthage.  I  recall  the  veterans  of  the 
Revolution,  of  whom  there  were  many  in  our 
village  when  I  was  a  boy,  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
War  of  1812,  of  those  who  came  back  from  the 
bloody  fields  of  Mexico  in  1848,  and  of  comrades 
who  fought  and  fell  in  the  Civil  War.  In  all 
those  wars,  we  were  a  divided  country  with 
American  opinion  seriously  at  variance. 

Now  the  boys  of  our  village  are  fighting 
"Over  There."  Though  the  seas  divide  them 
from  us,  nevertheless  there  is  no  waking  mo 
ment  when  they  are  not  in  our  thoughts  and 
no  sleeping  ones  when  they  are  not  in  our 
dreams.  There  is  no  division  now,  as  one  peo 
ple  we  are  giving  our  best  without  stint  and 
without  criticism  for  the  only  world  purpose  of 
any  war. 

The  Crown  Prince  of  Germany  said  recently 
in  an  official  interview,  "The  American  soldiers 
do  not  know  why  they  are  in  this  war.  I  asked 
an  American  prisoner  who  was  brought  before 
me  for  what  he  was  fighting.  He  said  it  was 
on  account  of  Alsace.  I  said  to  him,  'What  is 
Alsace?'  and  he  answered,  'It  is  a  lake.'  '  His 
[362] 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

Royal  Highness  understood  as  little  as  does  the 
German  supreme  command,  the  character  and 
intelligence  of  our  boys.  The  young  soldier 
sized  up  the  Crown  Prince  and  treated  him  as 
he  would  have  done  a  countryman  from  the 
back  hills  of  Missouri. 

We  have  the  youngest  army  which  ever  en 
tered  the  battlefield — its  average  age  is  only 
twenty-two — but  it  understands  as  well  as  the 
President  and  his  Cabinet,  or  the  Senate  and 
the  House  of  Representatives,  why  it  is  in 
France.  It  knows  the  story  of  Lafayette  and  is 
paying  the  debt  incurred  by  our  ancestors  to 
Lafayette  and  France  of  a  hundred  and  forty 
years  ago.  It  asks  no  loot  or  territory  or  in 
demnity,  but  it  is  determined  never  to  return 
until  autocracy  has  been  beaten  to  its  knees, 
until  militarism  has  received  its  death  blow  and 
until  the  world  is  sure  of  permanent  peace 
with  liberty. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  to  the  boys  and  girls 
who  are  here.  I  congratulate  you  upon  the 
opportunities  you  have  which  were  denied  to 
us  in  our  early  days.  When  I  was  a  boy  there 
was  no  telegraph  and  the  railroad  had  not  yet 
reached  our  village.  The  news  from  Europe 
came  by  slow  steamer  or  sailing  vessel  and  was 
many  weeks  old.  We  never  heard  at  all  from 
Asia  or  Africa  and  rarely  from  South  America 
or  Mexico.  I  congratulate  you  that  you  are 
living  in  this  day,  in  this,  the  most  wonderful 

[363] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

of  all  periods  and  in  which  is  being  enacted  more 
history  affecting  the  whole  world  than  is  to  be 
found  hi  the  libraries.  This  very  day  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  story  of  people  or  of 
nations,  the  whole  world  is  in  arms,  one  side 
fighting  for  the  lessons  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  achieved  by  our  ancestors  in  heroic 
deeds,  many  of  which  were  enacted  within  sight 
of  where  we  stand,  and  the  other  side  to  destroy 
liberty  and  its  ideals. 

This  morning  you  read  of  victories  of  the 
forces  of  civilization  on  the  widespread  battle 
front  in  France.  You  read  of  the  victorious 
advance  of  our  American  army,  fighting  in  the 
noblest  cause  and  for  the  purest  purposes  in 
which  soldiers  ever  enlisted.  You  read  also 
this  morning  that  way  up  in  the  mountains  of 
the  Balkans,  where  more  cruelties  and  out 
rages  have  been  perpetrated  by  the  Bulgarian 
and  German  armies  upon  the  populations  of 
Serbia  and  Rumania  than  were  ever  known 
before,  the  Allied  army  of  French,  British, 
Greeks  and  Serbians  had  won  a  decisive  victory 
and  opened  the  way  for  the  relief  of  the 
oppressed  and  the  punishment  of  the  op 
pressor.  You  also  read  this  morning  the  most 
inspiring  news  from  ancient  Palestine.  It  was 
only  the  other  day  that  Jerusalem,  after  cen 
turies  of  oppression  by  the  Turks,  was  rescued 
by  our  Allies.  You  read  that  when  the  Ger 
mans,  the  Bulgarians  and  the  Turks  take  a 
[364] 


THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE 

town  they  destroy  its  sacred  places  and  its  tem 
ples,  they  massacre  its  inhabitants  or  carry  them 
into  slavery,  and  loot  all  private  property.  But 
these  rescuers  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Saviour  came 
as  an  army  of  liberation,  protected  the  inhab 
itants  and  gave  to  them  all  the  benefits  of  law, 
order  and  liberty.  You  have  read  of  the  cru 
sades  and  the  gallantry  of  the  crusaders,  but 
they  won  only  Jerusalem.  Today's  paper  tells 
you  that,  in  the  victories  of  yesterday,  two 
Turkish  armies  were,  wiped  out  or  captured, 
that  Nazareth,  the  birthplace  of  Jesus  Christ, 
was  rescued  and  the  victorious  army  is  on  the 
eve  of  freeing  the  whole  of  Palestine,  Mesopo 
tamia  and  Syria,  and  restoring  them  to  con 
ditions  when  they  were  the  garden  of  the  world. 

Boys  and  girls,  this  is  a  glorious  age,  a  glori 
ous  year,  a  glorious  day  in  which  to  live,  but 
the  greatest  blessing  is  that  we  are  enjoying 
everything  which  makes  life  worth  the  living  in 
our  own  glorious  country  of  the  United  States. 

On  this  day,  more  than  on  any  other,  during 
the  last  tragic  four  years,  we  can  see  the  dawning 
of  a  victorious  peace  when  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  on  their  own  lines,  according  to  their 
own  necessities  and  aspirations,  can  develop  in 
peace  and  protection,  with  the  blessings  of  that 
liberty  which  we  enjoy. 


365 


Speech  by  Hon.  Chauncey  M.  Depew  at  the 
Luncheon  of  the  Merchants'  Association 
of  New  York,  Hotel  Astor,  October  10, 
1918. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: 

It  was  a  great  pleasure  for  me  to  listen  to  the 
inspiring  suggestions  of  your  President,  and  I  was 
also  glad  to  hear  the  very  wise  words  of  that 
eminent  financier  who  is  the  leader  of  this  great 
army  of  investors  which  is  to  help  our  Army 
on  the  other  side  by  placing  this  Liberty  Loan. 

We  live  in  rapid  times.  The  events  of  to-day 
are  amazing,  of  to-morrow  wonderful,  of  the 
next  day  miraculous.  It  taxes  the  mind  to 
keep  pace  with  the  changes  of  the  hours.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  ocean  our  American  army, 
marching  and  fighting  beside  their  gallant  and 
glorious  comrades,  the  British,  French,  Italians 
and  Belgians  is  winning  a  series  of  victories  day 
by  day,  week  by  week  and  month  by  month 
with  never  a  setback.  We  at  home  are 
marching  through  the  streets  of  the  cities 
and  villages  and  over  the  country  roads  to 
enlist  interest  in  the  purchase  of  Liberty 
Bonds.  Our  gallant  boys  are  periling  their 
lives  for  us  and  we  are  asked  to  peril  neither 
our  lives  nor  our  property  for  them,  but  to 
invest  in  the  best  security  ever  offered. 

While  these  two  hosts  are  marching  to  vic 
tory,  the  enemy  makes  a  seductive  proposal  for 
[366] 


MERCHANTS'   ASSOCIATION   SPEECH 

an  armistice  under  which  both  shall  halt.  We 
will  leave  that  to  Foch,  Haig,  Pershing  and  Diaz. 
Our  success  in  France  and  beyond  its  borders 
means  safety,  security  and  liberty  for  all  the 
future.  Our  success  in  this  bond  campaign  means 
that  we  will  keep  our  armies  supplied  while 
they  fight,  that  we  will  bring  them  home  when 
they  have  performed  their  task  and  that  we  will 
care  for  them  after  they  arrive.  This  can  only 
be  done  by  money.  Autocracy  cries  for  peace 
largely  because  the  present  German  loan  has 
failed.  The  English  loan  has  succeeded,  so  has 
the  French,  and  so  must  the  American! 

In  this  wild  tune  of  unnatural  excitement,  the 
most  valuable  possession  is  a  level  head.  Who 
ever  else  may  pardonably  be  moved  from  his 
base  by  hope  or  dread,  I  have  faith  that  the 
one  man  most  important  in  all  the  world  at 
this  crisis  will  act  wisely  and  well,  and  that  is 
our  President. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  experiences 
in  history  that  the  autocratic  governments  of 
Germany,  Austria  and  Turkey  have  so  utterly 
failed  to  understand  the  psychology  of  demo 
cratic  thought  and  motives.  It  was  illustrated 
in  the  rape  of  Belgium,  in  the  ravages  in 
France,  in  the  crushing  of  Serbia  and  the  early 
and  long-continued  contempt  for  the  armies 
of  France,  England  and  her  colonies.  It  was 
most  conspicuously  illustrated  in  the  repeated 
insults  and  barbarities  upon  our  people,  our 

[367] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

sovereignty  and  our  flag,  until  we  were  forced 
into  this  war.  It  was  further  illustrated  by 
the  Kaiser  and  his  advisers  in  their  loud  ex 
pressions  of  opinion  that  the  American  Govern 
ment  could  never  raise  an  army,  that  if  it  did 
raise  an  army  it  never  could  get  that  host 
across  the  ocean,  that  if  it  did  land  in  France 
it  would  not  fight. 

When  the  German  drive  upon  Paris  had  been 
halted,  and  before  the  counter-offensive  began, 
the  French  and  British  generals  were  wisely 
from  their  experience  doubtful  for  the  purpose 
of  attacks  of  our  new  and  partially  trained  army. 
The  American  generals  said,  "  Trust  us. "  With 
that  quick  genius  in  grasping  the  situation 
which  has  made  Foch  the  supreme  strategist 
of  the  century,  he  accepted  the  American  chal 
lenge,  he  ordered  the  advance,  and  after 
Chateau-Thierry  said  proudly  to  Pershing, 
"You  have  not  only  the  freshest  but  the  best 
army  in  Europe." 

When  I  was  in  France  just  before  the  be 
ginning  of  the  war,  an  eminent  French  states 
man  said  to  me  in  great  agitation,  "We  are 
making  every  effort  for  peace,  but  the  German 
army  is  already  nine  miles  over  our  border  and 
war  is  inevitable.  We  will  fight  to  the  last, 
but  we  cannot  succeed  unless  England  helps. " 

At  the  critical  moment  England  did  help; 
not  only  the  British  Isles  responded,  but  the 
self-governing  colonies  of  Canada,  Australia, 


MERCHANTS'  ASSOCIATION  SPEECH 

New  Zealand  and  South  Africa  have  voluntarily 
sent  their  sons  in  numbers  proportionate  to 
their  population,  which  would  give  to  us  an 
army  of  twelve  millions  of  men. 

After  two  years  and  a  half  the  French  and 
British,  overmatched  in  numbers  after  the  fall 
of  Russia,  were  in  great  peril.  The  cry  was 
heard  across  the  Atlantic,  "We  are  fighting 
your  battle;  our  fleets  are  keeping  the  enemy 
from  your  shores;  we  are  seeking  to  preserve 
for  us  the  same  liberties  which  you  enjoy. 
Will  you  help?  " 

The  help  came,  two  millions  of  American 
soldiers  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  the  tide  of 
battle  changed.  So  it  is  another  source  of 
pride  that  at  the  crisis  when  the  question  was: 
"  Shall  we  wait  until  the  winter  is  over  for  the 
training  of  this  new  American  army,  or  shall 
we  attack  at  once  while  the  skies  are  clear  and 
the  roads  are  good?  "  It  was  the  confidence  of 
our  generals  in  our  boys  and  the  response  of  our 
boys  to  the  confidence  of  their  generals  which 
began  this  wonderful  campaign. 

I  have  been  a  close  student  of  human  nature 
during  the  sixty-two  years  since  I  left  college 
and  with  very  large  opportunities  for  investiga 
tion.  I  never  yet  have  met  an  individual  nor 
a  crowd,  nor  a  corporation,  that  could  be 
licked  every  day  with  no  let-up  and  no  get-back 
for  a  continuing  period  and  still  be  full  of  fight 
and  hope. 

[369] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

When  a  little  over  two  months  ago,  the  Ger 
man  army  and  their  allies,  after  crushing  Rus 
sia,  Roumania  and  Serbia,  were  within  a  few 
miles  of  Paris,  while  the  Gothas  were  dropping 
their  bombs  every  night  over  that  city  and  the 
long  distance  gun  was  exploding  its  shells  in  the 
streets  and  in  the  churches,  Germany  made  a 
proposition  for  peace.  It  was  to  satisfy  the 
people.  It  was,  "We  will  keep  what  we  have 
won  by  the  sword;  we  will  retain  Belgium;  we 
will  keep  Northern  France,  with  its  coal  and 
iron;  we  will  hold  on  to  the  provinces  which 
have  been  surrendered  to  us  from  Russia;  we 
will  take  back  our  colonies,  and  to  stop  further 
bloodshed  we  will  make  peace  without  in 
demnities.  " 

A  few  months  have  passed.  Allenby's  vic 
torious  army  has  redeemed  Palestine,  Mesopo 
tamia  and  Syria  and  crushed  four  Turkish  ar 
mies.  D'Esperey  in  twelve  days  has  brought 
Bulgaria  to  unconditional  surrender  and  re 
leased  Roumania  and  Serbia.  The  Russian 
provinces  are  in  revolt;  the  oppressed  nation 
alities  of  Austria  are  in  revolt;  Foch's  trium 
phant  armies  in  France  have  won  innumerable 
battles,  taken  300,000  prisoners  and  incalcu 
lable  amount  of  military  stores.  The  Foch 
pincers  are  closing  around  the  German  armies. 
The  German  Government  now  makes  a  second 
offer  of  peace.  They  say,  "If  you  will  grant 
an  armistice,  we  will  meet  you  for  conference 
[3701 


MERCHANTS'  ASSOCIATION  SPEECH 

and  negotiate  on  the  terms  laid  down  by  Presi 
dent  Wilson." 

Has  there  been  any  change  of  heart  since  the 
shell  of  the  long-distance  gun  fell  in  the  Church 
of  St.  Gervais  and  killed  its  worshippers?  Does 
autocracy  surrender  any  of  its  militarism? 
Does  it  offer  to  disband  its  army?  No! 

"The  Devil  was  sick, — the  Devil  a  monk  would  be! 
The  Devil  was  well, — the  devil  a  monk  was  he." 

With  an  armistice  Germany  would  feed  and 
recuperate  its  army.  Has  it  admitted  the  people 
to  the  Government?  It  says,  "Yes,  because 
we  have  taken  the  leader  of  the  majority  Social 
ists  into  the  Cabinet. "  The  people  in  Germany 
can  only  have  a  voice  by  a  change  in  the  Con 
stitution.  That  change  has  to  pass  the  Lower 
House,  the  Upper  House,  and  be  ratified  by 
the  Emperor.  All  the  kings,  dukes  and  princes, 
with  their  legislatures,  have  to  assent.  To 
amend  our  Constitution  requires  a  two-thirds 
vote  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  a  vote  by 
the  legislatures  affirmatively  of  three-fourths 
of  the  States.  This  change  in  the  German 
Constitution  by  admitting  a  Socialist  into  the 
Cabinet  would  be  the  same  as  if  in  our  country 
the  President  should  make  Mr.  Gompers  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  and  then  tell  the  world 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has 
been  amended.  It  is  another  evidence  of 
that  singular  belief  of  the  German  autocracy 
[371] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

that  a  democratic  people  can  be  fooled  all 
the  time. 

I  do  not  see  how  any  peace  discussion  on 
President  Wilson's  terms  can  take  place  while 
the  German  army  is  holding  Belgium  and 
Northern  France.  It  was  only  the  day  before 
yesterday,  and  apparently  after  this  offer,  that 
the  Kaiser  said  in  a  speech  to  his  army,  "We 
will  fight  until  we  have  shed  every  drop  of 
blood  before  we  surrender  Alsace  and  Lorraine." 
It  was  only  yesterday  that  the  cable  brings  us 
the  news  of  the  barbaric  and  savage  looting  of 
French  villages  and  the  carrying  off  in  Belgian 
towns  of  young  men  and  women  into  slavery. 
This  is  not  a  change  of  heart,  these  are  not 
works  meet  for  repentance.  We  do  not  want 
territory  nor  indemnities.  We  do  not  want 
reprisals  in  kind.  No  American  army  under  any 
provocation  could  subject  German  cities  to  the 
atrocities  of  Louvain  and  Dinant,  of  Noyon  and 
St.  Quentin. 

The  German  people  have  kept  their  armies 
in  the  field  and  enthusiastically  supported  them 
by  taking  Government  bonds  to  the  extent  of 
thirty  billions  of  dollars.  It  seems  just  that 
Germany  should  make  a  new  issue  of  bonds 
sufficient  for  the  reparation  of  Belgium,  for  the 
restoration  of  Northern  France,  for  the  rehabili 
tation  of  Serbia  and  for  other  righteous  things. 
These  bonds  should  be  first  mortgage  taking 
precedence  of  the  war  loans.  They  might  be 
[372] 


MERCHANTS'  ASSOCIATION  SPEECH 

called  the  debt  to  justice  and  mercy.  This 
would  effectually  discourage  another  war  for 
the  conquest  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  amazing  recent  offers  of  the  Ger 
man  Chancellor  was  that  Germany  would  be 
willing  to  act  with  the  twenty-four  Government 
nations  allied  against  her  in  sharing  apparently 
one  twenty-fourth  of  the  money  necessary  to  re 
store  Belgium;  and  the  other  equally  remark 
able  utterance  is  in  the  morning  paper — that 
the  Kaiser  says  he  is  willing  to  forgive  his  ene 
mies  for  resisting  his  ambitions. 

My  friends,  it  is  a  wonderful  privilege  to  be 
alive  now.  I  heard  in  my  boyhood,  seventy- 
five  to  eighty  years  ago,  from  the  lips  of  Revo 
lutionary  soldiers,  of  divisions  among  our 
people  into  Revolutionists  and  Loyalists  during 
that  war.  I  have  read  how  the  opposition  to 
the  War  of  1812  was  so  great  that  New  England 
threatened  to  secede.  I  remember  the  bitter  op 
position  in  Congress  and  out  to  the  War  of 
1848.  Many  of  us  participated  in  the  Civil 
War  between  brethren  fighting  for  different 
ideals.  We  were  divided  in  the  war  with  Spain. 

Today  a  hundred  millions  of  people  of  divers 
views  on  all  questions  but  one  stand  together 
with  unequalled  enthusiasm  and  unanimity. 
The  Revolutionary  War  was  settled  by  the 
unconditional  surrender  of  Cornwallis  and  his 
army  at  Yorktown.  The  Civil  War  was  settled, 
the  Union  restored  and  the  sovereignty  of  our 
[373] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

Republic  made  secure  forever  by  the  uncondi 
tional  surrender  of  General  Lee  and  his  armies 
at  Appomattox.  Militarism,  with  its  army 
intact,  is  still  militarism  and  a  menace. 

We  read  in  the  New  Testament  that  the 
Devil  took  Christ  up  on  an  exceedingly  high 
mountain  and  offered  Him  all  the  world  for 
surrender.  The  Devil's  title  was  bad,  but  not 
so  bad,  after  all,  when  we  consider  that  the  whole 
world  at  that  time  was  given  over  to  the  mili 
tary  and  imperial  power  of  Rome.  The  only 
voice  for  "peace  on  earth  and  good- will  among 
men/'  for  " loving  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  was 
that  of  the  lonely  Saviour  upon  that  mountain 
top.  Critics  and  scientists  have  questioned  this 
story  because  of  the  impossibility  of  seeing  all 
the  world.  To  the  Divine  mind  the  inventions 
and  scientific  triumphs  of  the  future  are  per 
fectly  clear.  We  now,  through  the  wireless  and 
cable,  see  all  the  world.  In  the  morning  we 
are  with  our  boys  on  the  battlefields  in  France; 
we  are  with  them  as  they  are  being  conveyed 
across  the  ocean;  we  see  what  is  going  on  in  all 
parts  of  Russia;  we  witnessed  the  surrender  of 
Bulgaria  yesterday  and  the  fall  of  the  Turkish 
Cabinet  in  Constantinople.  We  read  that  yes 
terday  evening  Allenby  and  his  army  crossed 
the  Jordan  and  that  this  morning  they  captured 
the  Turkish  army  and  rescued  Bethlehem,  the 
birthplace,  and  Nazareth,  the  home  of  Christ. 
These  victories  are  instantaneously  communi- 
[374] 


MERCHANTS'  ASSOCIATION  SPEECH 

cated  to  our  minds.  The  world  is  aflame  with 
the  success  of  our  ideals.  We  see  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  when  all  people  shall  enjoy  in  their 
own  way  the  principles  of  our  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  be  inspired  by  the  teachings 
of  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth. 


375J 


Extract  from  Speech  as  Presiding  Officer  and 
introducing  the  Guest  at  the  Dinner  given 
hy  the  Pilgrims  Society  of  New  York  to  Sir 
Eric  Geddes,  First  Lord  of  the  British  Ad 
miralty,  Ritz-Carlton  Hotel,  October  14, 
1918. 

My  Friends: 

Our  Pilgrims  Society  has  welcomed  dis 
tinguished  representatives  of  every  branch  of 
public  service  and  of  distinction  in  other  walks 
of  life  from  Great  Britain  and  her  self-governing 
colonies.  This  is  the  first  time  we  have  had  the 
opportunity  to  receive  a  British  Cabinet  Minis 
ter  of  the  first  rank  whose  training  and  oppor 
tunities  have  been  American  as  well  as  English. 
Sir  Eric  spent  several  years  of  his  earlier  life 
in  our  country.  He  gave  indications  then  of 
his  future  greatness  by  managing  successfully 
those  two  most  difficult  enterprises — a  railroad 
and  a  lumber  camp.  Broader  experience  came 
in  tropical  India,  whence  success  called  him 
to  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  great  rail 
way  systems  of  England. 

Lloyd  George  is  one  of  the  most  original  and 
successfully  audacious  of  statesmen.  Not  the 
least  of  his  distinctions  is  that  for  assistants 
and  advisers  he  selects  and  associates  with 
himself  men  of  all  parties  and  opposite  activi 
ties  to  his  own,  who  in  peace  times  have  demon- 

[376] 


TRIBUTE   TO   SIR  ERIC   GEDDES 

strated  their  abilities  in  many  industrial  and 
other  pursuits.  Among  the  first  of  these  is 
our  distinguished  guest.  The  Premier  drafted 
him  from  railway  management  to  the  control 
of  the  vital  work  of  the  manufacture  of  muni 
tions,  and  then  made  him  First  Lord  and  head 
of  the  British  Admiralty.  Sir  Eric  tells  me  that 
he  is  only  half  of  my  age.  A  large  part  of  that 
half  was  occupied  with  childhood  and  boyhood. 
Now,  if  with  these  comparatively  few  produc 
tive  years  he  has  made  such  a  wonderful  record, 
there  is  no  limit  to  what  he  may  accomplish 
before  he  rounds  out  fourscore  and  five. 

The  British  navy  is  the  senior  arm  of  Great 
Britain's  defensive  and  offensive  power.  It 
has  for  centuries  protected  her  island  coasts 
from  hostile  invasions  and  carried  her  flag  and 
planted  her  colonies  around  the  globe.  The 
work  of  the  British  navy  in  the  present  world 
war  deeply  interests  us.  It  has  protected  our 
coast  and  our  country  from  hostile  fleets  and 
invading  armies,  until  we  were  ready  to  join 
in  this  fight,  in  which  our  own  liberties  and 
civilization  are  at  stake.  When  it  was  a  vital 
necessity  to  our  present  Allies,  who  had  done 
so  much  and  suffered  so  much  during  two  years 
and  a  half  of  constant  battle,  that  the  United 
States  should  come  in  and  come  quickly  and 
with  all  its  resources,  it  was  again  the  British 
navy  which  by  loaning  us  its  ships  and  adding 
its  war  vessels  to  our  own  as  a  convoy  built 
[3771 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

the  bridge  upon  which  two  millions  of  our 
American  boys  have  gone  over  to  France  with 
a  maximum  of  safety  and  a  minimum  of  acci 
dents  beyond  anything  in  naval  experience. 
It  is  the  American  army  thus  arriving  in  such 
numbers,  and  without  the  usual  intensive  train 
ing  by  their  dash,  spirit,  daring  and  boundless 
courage  at  the  critical  emergency  between 
offensive  and  defensive  decided  the  policy  of 
attack  which  now,  with  equally  wonderful 
efforts  by  our  Allies,  is  rapidly  sweeping  the 
Hun  out  of  France  and  Belgium. 

We  hail  Sir  Eric  as  embodying  in  his  own 
person  the  leading  principle  and  object  of  the 
two  Pilgrims  Societies  of  New  York  and 
London.  We  were  organized  and  labor  for  one 
great  purpose,  and  that  is  to  bring  the  English 
speaking  peoples  of  the  world  in  close  and 
harmonious  relations  by  helping  to  have  them 
understand  each  other  better.  No  man  has 
done  more  to  accomplish  this  result  than  Sir 
Eric.  He  understands  his  own  countrymen 
and,  happily,  he  knows  us  equally  well. 

It  is  said  that  for  hundreds  of  years  a  weather 
vane  on  top  of  the  Admiralty  building  in  Down 
ing  street  was  connected  with  the  Admiralty 
offices  down  below  so  that  the  First  Lord, 
sitting  at  his  desk,  always  knew  which  way 
the  wind  blew.  There  is  no  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  the  earlier  naval  officers  there  was  a 
settled  belief  that  the  direction  in  which  the 
[3781 


TRIBUTE   TO   SIR   ERIC    GEDDES 

wind  blew  in  London  it  should  blow  all  around 
the  world,  but  Sir  Eric  owes  his  distinction  to 
having  an  open  mind  for  new  discoveries  and 
no  reverence  for  useless  or  false  traditions. 
From  his  own  experience  he  knew  that  the 
wind  blew  as  it  listed  and  according  to  local 
conditions  in  America  and  Calcutta.  So  he 
adopted  the  wireless,  or  at  least  enlarged  its 
use,  and  now  the  reports  in  the  Admiralty 
offices  keep  it  in  hourly  contact  with  conditions 
on  all  the  seven  seas. 

When  we  entered  the  war  our  navy,  happily, 
was  in  good  fighting  trim.  It  sailed  at  once 
for  the  other  side  to  do  its  part  and  has  done 
it  admirably.  Many  a  naval  battle  in  other 
times  has  been  lost  by  disagreement  among 
allied  commanders.  On  many  occasions  there 
have  been  fine  exhibitions  of  fellowship  between 
the  American  and  the  British  on  the  sea.  Soon 
after  Dewey's  battle  in  Manila  Bay,  I  had  an 
interesting  talk  with  that  bluff  and  gallant 
British  sailor,  Captain  Chichester.  I  com 
plimented  him  on  what  he  did  for  Dewey. 
"Well,"  he  said,  "when  I  saw  the  German 
admiral  take  a  threatening  position  which 
would  have  prevented  Admiral  Dewey  from 
using  his  guns,  I  changed  the  position  of  my 
ship  and  said  to  the  German:  If  you  interfere, 
you  have  got  to  fight  me  first.  Blood  is  thicker 
than  water." 

When  our  battle  fleet  reached  the  other  side, 
[379] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

it,  of  course,  had  to  act  in  concert  with  our 
Allies.  Sir  Eric  has  brought  about  conditions 
which  make  absolute  concert  of  action  and 
harmony  of  policy.  There  is  camaraderie 
between  the  American  and  the  British  officers, 
and  a  brotherhood  among  the  crews  afloat  and 
on  shore.  Feeling  between  the  two  fleets  is 
healthy  emulation  and  pride  in  the  successes 
of  each  other.  It  is  to  this  camaraderie  that 
we  owe  the  wonderful  campaign  against  the 
U-boats  and  the  total  defeat  of  the  German 
hopes  through  their  murderous  sinking  of 
merchant  ships  and  unarmed  crews  and  pas 
sengers  to  control  the  seas. 


380 


LETTERS  AND  LITERARY 
CONTRIBUTIONS 


A  VISION  OF  HIGHER  LIFE 

Written  for  "Leslie's  Weekly." 

Christmas  means  hope  and  its  realization. 
The  child  grows  eagerly  expectant  as  the  time 
approaches  for  the  visit  of  Santa  Glaus. 
While  this  fiction  remains  unquestioned,  the 
imagination  opens  new  and  wider  worlds,  and 
ideals  become  so  much  a  part  of  the  mind  that 
the  prosaic  and  commonplace  can  never  crush 
them.  Until  the  youth  reaches  manhood  and 
independence,  Christmas  is  the  happiest  day 
of  the  year.  Its  gifts  and  hearty  good  cheer 
impress  family  affection,  parental  thoughtful- 
ness  and  brotherly  love.  The  dullest  and  most 
irresponsive  of  fathers  and  mothers  are  uplifted 
to  a  vision  of  higher  life  by  the  interchanges  of 
souvenirs  and  the  merry  meeting  with  children 
and  grandchildren  at  the  table  and  fireside. 
Few  can  escape  and  all  enjoy  the  meaning  of  the 
festival,  the  lessons  it  conveys  and  the  inspira 
tion  it  gives,  and  we  enter  upon  a  brighter 
future  and  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  benefi 
cence  of  the  practice  of  faith,  hope  and  charity. 
The  loved  ones  who  have  crossed  to  the  other 
side,  the  loved  near  and  far  who  are  still  with 
us,  the  old  homestead  with  its  precious  mem 
ories,  the  old  church  whose  sacred  associations 
tie  together  childhood,  maturity  and  age,  love, 
f  3831 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

marriage  and  death;  the  schoolhouse  where  the 
beginnings  of  education  were  so  painful,  and 
the  ever-increasing  pleasures  of  the  pursuit  of 
learning  through  the  high  school,  academy  and 
college  are  recalled  and  recited,  and  there  is 
exquisite  delight  in  these  oft-told  tales,  and  new 
experiences  enliven  this  blessed  anniversary. 
The  skeptic  who  denies  the  divinity  of  Christ 
recognizes  Him  as  a  philosopher  whose  teachings 
have  contributed  more  than  all  others  to  peace 
among  nations  and  friendship  between  alien 
peoples;  but  to  those  who  revere  and  worship 
Him,  this  natal  day  has  a  personal  meaning. 
It  strengthens  faith  and  confirms  the  promises 
which  have  influenced  their  lives.  The  world 
grows  brighter  and  more  beautiful.  The  antag 
onisms  of  neighborhood  disappear  and  we  get 
a  more  intimate  understanding  of  the  basic 
principle  of  Christianity,  "Love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself/7 


[384 


CHANGES   WITHIN  THE   NEXT 
SEVENTY-FIVE   YEARS 

Written    for    the  "Brooklyn  Eagle"    on    its 
Seventy-fifth  Anniversary,  October  26,  1916. 

The  seventy-five  years  just  closed  have  been 
so  crowded  with  marvels  that  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  of  happenings  of  equal  or  greater 
moment  during  the  next  three-quarters  of  a 
century.  But,  based  on  present  experience, 
some  judgment  may  be  formed.  The  world 
cannot  stand  still  and  the  force  of  the  present 
momentum  will  be  felt  for  a  long  period.  This 
gigantic  war  is  economic  and  not  dynastic. 
It  is  significant  that  the  Russians  did  better 
when  the  Czar  assumed  supreme  command; 
the  British  hail  with  delight  the  presence  of 
King  George  at  the  front;  the  German  assault 
is  more  energetic  when  the  Kaiser  is  behind, 
and  Von  Hindenburg,  who  is  as  nearly  a  man  of 
the  people  as  is  possible  among  officers  in  the 
German  army,  when  promoted  to  supreme 
command,  selects  as  his  chief  lieutenants  to 
lead  the  three  most  important  armies  not  those 
who  have  won  rank  and  distinction  during  the 
war,  but  the  heirs  to  the  thrones  of  Germany, 
Prussia,  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemburg.  There  is 
nowhere  apparent  any  sentiment  among  the 
people  of  the  warring  nations  to  get  rid  of  their 

[3851 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

ruling  houses.  So  it  is  not  probable  that  the 
inevitable  changes  of  the  future  involve  any 
early  emptying  of  thrones.  But  the  inevitable 
result  of  this  war  will  be  an  enormous  spread 
of  the  democratic  spirit.  The  army  is  the  uni 
versity  where  a  new  life  is  opened  to  the  millions 
who  had  no  opportunity  in  their  narrow  civil 
life  to  learn  their  value  to  the  State  and  their 
share  in  its  activities  and  preservation.  They 
will  demand  and  enforce  a  larger  share  in  govern 
ment.  The  greatest  change  will  be  in  Rus 
sia  and  in  the  transfer  of  the  arbitrary  power 
of  the  bureaucracy  to  the  liberal  working  of 
the  legislative  coming  from  and  representing 
the  people.  If  a  wise  Czar  recognizes  this  he 
will  evolve  into  a  constitutional  monarch, 
if  he  fails  he  may  have  to  yield  to  another  or  a 
republic.  The  economic  development  of  Russia 
with  her  exhaustless  and  varied  resources  and 
vast  population  will  be  the  marvel  of  the  future. 
The  problem  of  Germany  is  more  difficult. 
The  program  of  the  Allies  is  to  minimize  her 
military  power  and  compel  her  to  keep  the  peace 
in  the  future.  They  contemplate  in  the  dis 
solution  of  the  German  Empire  the  restoration 
of  the  old  kingdoms  and  principalities  to  abso 
lute  independence  and  the  creation  of  new 
national  units.  They  also  feel  that  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs  must  go.  But  the 
resistless  tendency  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries  has  been  to  racial  unity 
[386] 


LETTERS   AND   LITERARY   CONTRIBUTIONS 

and  nationality.  It  cannot  be  stayed  by  arti 
ficial  creations.  The  brotherhood  of  blood  has 
become  a  tremendous  force  and  must  be  reck 
oned  with.  No  peace  has  any  promise  of  per 
manency  which  ignores  it.  The  Allies  must  find 
other  ways  to  make  impossible  another  Arma 
geddon.  The  recent  power  which  Germany  is 
showing  in  the  spirit  of  her  people  and  in  her 
farms  and  factories  when  transferred  from 
armies  to  industries  will  make  her  the  most 
formidable  competitor  in  the  world's  markets 
and  in  our  own.  She  educates  promoters  and 
trains  young  men  for  different  fields  in  all  the 
continents  and  on  the  seven  seas  to  expand  her 
commerce  as  no  other  nation  does.  Unless  other 
competitive  nations  develop  equal  efficiency 
and  preparation  for  world-wide  trade,  economic 
necessities  will  again  imperil  peace  in  the  future. 
The  United  States  is  as  unprepared  for  this 
industrial  contest  as  for  war. 

Great  Britain  has  not  only  financed  her  own 
unprecedented  expenditures,  but  loaned  sub 
sidies  of  thousands  of  millions  to  her  allies,  and 
at  the  same  time  maintained  her  productions  and 
exports  and  mastery  of  the  seas.  She  will  come 
out  of  the  war  with  a  debt  which  staggers  the 
imagination,  but  with  a  unification  of  her  pow 
ers  and  a  co-ordination  of  her  world-wide  em 
pire  which  will  enable  her  to  so  stimulate  her 
productions  and  syndicate  them  for  effecting 
entry  into  all  markets  that  she  will  meet  her 

[387] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND    FOUR 

obligations  and  be  stronger  than  before  the  war. 
With  all  power  in  the  House  of  Commons  and 
no  constitutional  restrictions,  her  government 
is  more  immediately  responsive  to  the  popular 
will  than  any  other.  The  poverty  of  the 
aristocracy  will,  however,  diminish  their  in 
fluence,  and  labor  will  have  a  more  potential 
voice  in  the  future  in  British  affairs.  The 
entrance  of  the  self-governing  colonies  into  the 
Imperial  Parliament  is  inevitable  after  their 
contributions  and  sacrifices  in  this  war. 

No  age  has  witnessed  such  a  finding  of  its 
soul  by  any  people  as  has  come  to  the  French. 
Men  and  women  of  all  classes,  and  with  fury 
and  frenzy  extraordinarily  tempered  with  judg 
ment,  are  ready  and  eager  to  suffer  or  die  for 
France.  With  her  provinces  restored  and  the 
perpetual  menace  from  the  Rhine  removed, 
France  can  devote  her  superb  energies,  vitality 
and  temperament  to  progress  and  development, 
mental  and  industrial.  French  art  and  French 
literature  will  become  dominant  factors  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  world. 

Our  country  must  share  in  the  progress  and 
development  of  the  next  seventy-five  years. 
We  will  begin  the  period  richer  than  other  na 
tions.  They  will  believe  that  a  large  measure  of 
our  wealth  has  come  from  their  necessities,  and 
will  not  hesitate  to  try  and  regain  it  if  the  oppor 
tunity  offers.  Ours  is  a  splendid  isolation  and  its 
peaceful  prospects  possible  only  with  adequate 
[3881 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

and    available    power.     We    have    no    worthy 
military  system  for  national  defense  and  no 
educational  facilities  for  trade  expansion.    We 
are  handicapped  by  restrictive  legislation  for 
competition  with  the  great  syndicates  of  other 
nations  backed  and  supported  by  their  govern 
ments.     Our  one  hundred  millions  of  people 
will  increase  to  two  hundred  millions  and  the 
new  experience  of  congested  populations  will 
present  fresh  problems.     Free  land  for  settle 
ment  has  been  the  safety  of  the  past,  but  that 
is  practically  exhausted.     We  must  have  foreign 
markets  and  increase  our  industrial  and  agri 
cultural  outputs.     To  have  and  hold  foreign 
markets  there  must  be  a  radical  change  in  the 
attitude   of  our   Government   toward   citizens 
who  have  the  enterprise  and  initiative  to  settle 
in  the  foreign  countries  and  develop  business. 
Secretary  Daniels,  in  warning  American  resi 
dents  and  investors  in  Mexico  that  as  they 
carried  their  money  and  energies  to  Mexico 
because  they  could  do  better  there  than  at 
home  they  must  abide  by  the  conditions  in 
Mexico,  and  could  expect  no  protection  from 
their   own   country,   undoubtedly   expresses   a 
large  opinion  among  our  people.     Great  Britain 
and  Germany  regard  their  people  who  make  such 
an  adventure  in  foreign  lands  as  advance  agents 
of  trade  and  markets  and  shield  them  with  all 
the  protection   of  their  diplomacy  and   their 
flags.     We  can  never  have  an  equal  chance  and 
[389] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

standing  with  the  citizens  of  the  highly  organized 
industrial  nations  in  international  competition 
until  the  flag  follows  the  American  and  its  sov 
ereignty  guards  him  and  his  rights  everywhere. 
Labor  will  increase  its  political  power  and 
dominance  over  executives  and  legislatures. 
The  conservative  strength  of  the  country  will 
be  farmers.  Though  the  country  will  make 
marvelous  progress  in  arts  and  industries,  yet 
agriculture  will  remain  our  chief  reliance. 
"Back  to  the  farm"  is  a  futile  cry,  but  remain 
on  the  farm  is  possible  and  practicable.  A  re 
cent  authority  on  agriculture  has  stated  that 
one-third  of  the  farmers  make  money,  one-third 
break  even  and  one-third  who  lose  money  would 
do  better  as  farm  laborers.  Reclamation,  inten 
sive  farming,  knowledge  of  soils  and  fertilizers 
will  change  these  conditions  on  the  material 
side,  while  farm  communities  brought  into  inti 
mate  touch  with  urban  opportunities  by  auto 
mobiles,  trolley,  telephone  and  wireless  will 
add  social  and  educational  advantages  to  the 
larger  and  freer  life  of  the  farm.  Production 
will  keep  pace  with  population  and  there  will 
be  wealth  in  the  export  of  the  surplus.  It  was 
the  farmers  who  defeated  on  the  referendum 
the  eight-hour  law  in  California,  because  they 
thought  it  a  waste  of  time,  and  it  was  the  farm 
ers  who  beat  the  full-crew  law  in  Missouri, 
because  they  thought  increasing  expenses  to  the 
railroads  would  add  to  the  rates  on  their  prod- 
[390J 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

ucts.  The  farmer  is  a  capitalist  and  thinks  on 
property  lines.  His  land  is  his,  the  citadel  of 
his  family  and  the  hope  of  his  children.  To 
protect  it  and  all  its  interests,  he  will  work,  vote 
and  fight.  The  politician  of  the  future  must 
satisfy  the  farmer  as  well  as  labor. 

There  will  be  little  change  in  the  Constitu 
tion.  It  will  meet  in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the 
past  the  needs  of  the  expansion  of  the  country 
in  every  department.  The  growth  of  execu 
tive  authority  and  its  dominance  of  the  Congress 
and  legislatures  will  increase.  The  power  of 
the  President  has  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds  in 
the  last  few  years.  As  the  population  in 
creases,  the  importance  of  the  legislative  branch 
will  diminish  in  popular  estimation  and  the 
authority  of  the  Executive  grow.  To  avoid  a 
masterful  and  popular  President  becoming 
dictator,  there  will  be  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  limiting  the  office  to  one  term, 
but  extending  it  beyond  the  present  four  years. 

In  the  next  seventy-five  years  The  Eagle 
will  find  the  United  States  the  greatest  Power 
in  the  world  in  all  that  constitutes  a  nation. 
Its  population  will  be  more  American,  for  suc 
ceeding  generations  will  each  enjoy  greater  op 
portunities  because  they  are  Americans.  There 
will  be  such  a  clear  understanding  of  the  reliance 
of  liberty  on  law  that  liberty  better  understood 
and  practiced  will  grant  larger  freedom. 


391 


LITTLE  TALKS  WITH  BIG  MEN 

Interview  in  the  "Brooklyn  Eagle,"  December 
17,  1916. 

Chauncey  M.  Depew  had  many  interesting 
things  to  say  when  I  called  on  him  a  few  days 
ago.  You  have  all  heard  of  Mr.  Depew,  of 
course.  He  was  twice  United  States  Senator 
from  New  York,  and  is  noted  as  one  of  our 
greatest  speakers  and  humorists.  Though  he 
has  arrived  at  the  great  age  of  eighty-two,  Mr. 
Depew  is  as  active  as  many  a  man  half  his  years. 
He  is  keen  and  witty,  and  talks  in  a  quick, 
lively  manner. 

"Boys  now  have  a  great  number  of  advan 
tages  which  were  not  possible  when  I  was  a 
boy,  say  from  seventy  to  seventy-five  years 
ago,"  remarked  Mr.  Depew,  in  reply  to  a  ques 
tion.  There  was  a  merry  twinkle  in  his  clear 
gray  eyes,  as  if  he  were  thinking  of  the  good  old 
days. 

"There  were  few  railroads,"  he  went  on,  "and 
traveling  was  by  water.  The  result  was  that 
few  boys  ever  got  far  from  their  own  neighbor 
hoods  unless  they  lived  near  rivers  or  canals." 

"How  about  the  schools  when  you  were 
a  boy?"  Mr.  Depew  was  asked. 

"The  schools  were  poorly  equipped,  compared 
with  today.  Academies  were  strong  in  Latin 
[  392] 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

and  Greek,  but  public  schools  had  little  beyond 
a  few  English  branches  and  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic.  Music  could  only  be  had 
through  private  instruction.  Laboratories 
didn't  exist." 

Mr.  Depew  then  spoke  of  the  scarcity  of 
books  in  his  boyhood  days. 

"I  read  through  every  book  in  the  circulating 
library  in  my  village,"  he  said.  " Public  libraries 
had  not  yet  been  built,  but  in  the  larger  vil 
lages  there  were  sometimes  circulating  libraries 
whose  stock  was  mainly  histories  and  standard 
English  novels." 

The  former  Senator  had  some  interesting 
things  to  say  about  sport  in  the  old  days. 

" Baseball  games  were  primitive,"  he  told 
his  interviewer.  "No  rules,  no  diamond,  and 
no  umpire.  In  winter  there  was  active  warfare 
between  rival  snowball  clubs,  and  many  boys 
were  severely  hurt.  Riding  down  hill  or  coast 
ing  was  common,  and  boys  went  miles  to  find 
steeper  and  longer  hills.  Skating  was  universal 
on  ponds  and  brooks,  or  if  near,  on  the  river." 

"Well,  the  boys  in  your  day  seem  to  have 
had  a  very  good  time,"  I  said.  "They  appear 
to  have  had  few  school  studies  to  worry  over, 
and  they  had  all  manner  of  sports  to  take  up 
their  spare  time." 

Mr.  Depew  did  not  agree  with  this,  however. 
He  said  that  the  young  folks  seventy  or  seventy- 
five  years  ago  had  to  endure  many  hardships 
[393] 


AT   FOURSCORE    AND   FOUR 

nowadays  unknown.  There  was  little  real 
comfort,  he  said. 

"  Houses  were  mainly  heated  by  fireplaces 
and  had  cold  nights  and  mornings,"  remarked 
the  famous  after-dinner  speaker.  "  Parents 
believed  it  toughened  boys  for  them  to  sleep  in 
rooms  without  fire  and  wake  up  in  the  morning 
with  their  breath  frozen  to  the  sheets.  Bath 
tubs  existed  in  few  houses,  and  the  toughening 
process  continued  by  the  boys  breaking  the 
ice  in  a  tub  and  then  sponging  off  in  the  ice 
cold  water.  Those  who  survived  were  a  vigor 
ous  lot." 

Mr.  Depew  was  himself  the  proof  of  his 
statement.  One  must  be  vigorous  indeed  to 
carry  the  weight  of  eighty-two  years  so  lightly. 

"  Churchgoing  was  universal,  and  the  Sunday 
Schools  were  crowded,"  Mr.  Depew  went  on. 
"Boys  became  self-reliant  because  they  had 
always  before  them  that  they  must  make  their 
own  careers.  They  were  full  of  hope  and  energy. 
Those  who  watched  the  clock  lived  and  died 
as  they  were  born,  and  those  who  were  deter 
mined  to  get  there  climbed  farther  and  farther. 
Though  their  equipment  was  meager,  all  of 
them  got  on  who  tried." 

Chauncey  Mitchell  Depew  was  born  in 
Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  on  April  23,  1834.  He  was 
graduated  from  Yale  in  1856  and  two  years 
later  began  the  practice  of  law.  In  1861,  the 
first  year  of  the  Civil  War,  he  became  a  member 

[394] 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

of  the  New  York  Assembly,  and  he  was  Sec 
retary  of  State  of  New  York  State  from  1864 
to  1865.  Fifty  years  ago  Mr.  Depew  became 
an  attorney  of  the  New  York  Central.  Long 
after  he  rose  to  be  president  of  the  great  rail 
road.  President  Harrison  wanted  to  make 
him  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States, 
but  the  offer  was  refused.  Chauncey  M.  Depew 
was  in  Washington  as  Senator  from  New  York 
from  1899  until  1911.  He  gained  great  popu 
larity  as  a  statesman  and  as  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  orators  this  country  has  produced. 
His  speech  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Statue  of 
Liberty,  thirty  years  ago,  is  still  remembered 
as  a  wonderful  example  of  public  oratory. 
EDITOR,  JUNIOR  EAGLE. 


[395 


Congratulation  to  Walter  W.  Griffith. 

Hot  Springs,  Va.,  June  26,  1917. 

Walter  W.  Griffith  Esq., 
Commander  in  Chief. 

My  dear  Brother: 

I  deeply  regret  that  I  could  not  participate 
with  you  in  the  celebration  of  your  jubilee. 

There  is  no  event  in  public  society,  social  or 
family  life  so  picturesque  and  so  full  of  senti 
ment  and  valuable  reminiscence  as  a  jubilee. 
The  parents  who  have  been  so  rarely  fortunate 
as  to  live  together  in  peace  and  harmony  the 
critical  years  which  end  in  the  one  of  jubilee, 
have  around  them  in  loving  and  grateful  vener 
ation  their  children,  grandchildren  and  great 
grandchildren.  So,  when  a  nation  celebrates 
its  jubilee.  It  is  a  day  of  joy  and  festivity  with 
all  the  people. 

I  was  present  in  London  when  Great  Britain 
celebrated  the  jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria.  I  was 
on  one  of  the  ships,  when  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  the  fleet  was  gathered,  which  was  the 
symbol  of  Great  Britain's  power  and  safety. 

I  saw  the  processions  on  land,  when  the  many 
races  and  tribes,  the  representatives  of  the  self- 
governing  colonies,  kings  and  princes  loyal  to 
Great  Britain  and  part  of  her  empire  encircling 
the  globe  passed  in  front  of  the  Queen.  The 
reign  of  sixty  years  had  witnessed  a  progress  in 
[396] 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

the  arts  and  sciences,  in  civilization  and  liberty, 
in  power  and  expansion,  in  social  and  industrial 
development,  beyond  that  of  any  other  similar 
period  in  English  history.  But  when  our  histor 
ic  Ancient  Accepted  Scottish  Rite  celebrates  its 
jubilee,  the  reminiscences  and  associations  are  so 
close  and  intimate  that  they  are  like  those  of  a 
family;  but  they  are  more  than  the  records  of  the 
family,  because  they  recall  long  years  of  brother 
hood,  of  benefits  bestowed,  of  charities  granted, 
of  men  rescued  and  saved  and  of  good  work. 
We  are  privileged,  who  are  members  of  the 
Masonic  Fraternity,  to  know  and  to  feel  in  our 
own  lives  not  only  what  it  has  done  for  us  but 
for  our  brothers. 

I  became  a  Mason  over  fifty  years  ago.  That 
half  century  is  crowded  with  the  men  I  have 
known,  the  statesmen  I  have  been  intimate 
with,  the  many  events  in  public  and  business  life, 
with  which  I  have  been  associated ;  but  of  them 
all,  there  is  a  certain  sentiment,  tenderness, 
loyalty  to  God  and  man  in  Masonry  not  to 
be  found  elsewhere. 

I  know  that  every  one  who  participates  in 
your  ceremonies,  as  he  looks  back  over  the  past, 
appreciates  the  blessings  of  the  present  and 
builds  his  hopes  on  its  future,  will  feel  as 
never  before  that  for  a  Mason  especially,  life 
is  worth  the  living. 

Faithfully  and  fraternally  yours, 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW. 

[397] 


Letter  From  the  Children  of  Peekskill,  N.  Y. 

Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  July  7,  1917. 
Dear  Senator  Depew: 

We  want  to  tell  you  about  our  playground, 
because  it  is  in  the  park  you  gave  our  village, 
and  we  thought  you  would  like  to  hear  about  it. 

It  opens  on  Monday  morning  and  will  be 
open  every  day  except  Sunday  from  then  until 
the  last  of  August.  There  will  be  swings  and 
sand  boxes  and  quoits  and  bean  bags  and  volley 
balls  and  Indian  clubs,  and  the  longest  slide 
that  you  climb  up  and  slide  down.  And  any 
boy  or  girl  from  anywhere  in  the  village  can 
come.  And  a  young  lady  who  knows  all  about 
playgrounds  will  be  the  Director. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  takes  charge  of  all  this  work 
and  the  Park  Commissioners  give  them  per 
mission  to  use  the  park,  but  the  one  we  like  best 
of  all  about  the  playground  is  you,  for  if  you 
had  not  given  all  your  fine  land  to  our  village 
for  a  park  there  would  not  have  been  any  place 
for  a  playground. 

The  older  people  like  the  park,  too.  Some 
of  them  did  not  really  appreciate  it  at  first, 
but  a  good  while  ago  they  began  to  see  what  a 
fine  thing  it  is,  and  now  they  would  not  know 
how  to  get  along  without  it,  especially  the  peo 
ple  who  want  to  hold  patriotic  meetings  and 
[398] 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

open  air  church  on  Sundays,  and  the  people 
who  want  to  have  baseball  games,  but  most  of 
all  the  people  who  live  in  houses  that  have  no 
porches,  and  the  mothers  who  can  not  go  away 
for  the  summer  and  who  have  no  nice  cool  place 
to  take  their  babies.  Now  they  come  to  the 
park  and  sit  under  the  big  trees  and  watch  us 
play  and  have  a  good  time. 

So  we  thought  we  would  write  you  a  letter  and 
thank  you  for  giving  the  park,  although  you 
gave  it  quite  a  long  time  ago.  And  no  matter 
where  you  happen  to  be  this  summer  we  want 
you  to  know  that  while  across  the  ocean  so  many 
thousands  of  children  are  sad  and  unhappy, 
up  here  in  Peekskill  we  children  will  have  a 
happy  summer  because  of  the  playground  and 
your  park. 

Do  you  remember  one  day  some  years  ago 
when  you  were  on  your  way  from  Peekskill  to 
a  convention  where  you  were  to  make  a  speech 
you  came  to  a  country  school  house  and  saw 
the  flag  had  been  put  up  the  wrong  way — with 
the  stars  down — and  you  stopped  and  asked 
the  teacher  what  was  the  matter,  and  while 
she  was  explaining  she  discovered  who  you  were 
and  asked  you  to  come  in  and  speak  to  the 
children  and  you  went  in  and  made  a  speech 
to  them?  We  remember  it  from  hearing  our 
parents  talk  about  it.  Well,  you  may  have 
thought  that  a  very  simple  speech  compared 
to  some  of  the  great  speeches  you  have  made, 
[399] 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

but  the  children  who  heard  it  will  remember 
it  the  longest  of  all  your  speeches — because 
it  was  made  to  them. 

Now  your  gift  of  Depew  Park  is,  to  us, 
something  like  your  speech  to  those  children 
in  that  country  school:  for  during  all  the 
years  to  come  it  will  be  speaking  to  us  of  you, 
and  will  be  saying  how  you  thought  enough  of 
the  people  of  the  village  where  you  lived  as  a 
boy  to  give  them  a  park  for  their  benefit  and 
enjoyment. 

And  when  we  grow  up  to  be  men  and  women 
we  are  going  to  thank  you  in  another  way,  a 
way  that,  we  believe,  will  please  you  better  than 
thanking  you  in  words:  we  are  going  to  give 
something  to  some  one  ourselves.  That  will 
show  we  learned  the  lesson  you  so  beautifully 
taught  us:  that  the  things  folks  do  that  last 
longest  are  the  things  they  do  for  others. 

Good-bye, 
THE  CHILDREN  OF  PEEKSKILL. 


[400] 


Answer  to  the  Children  of  Peekskill,  N.  Y. 

The  Homestead, 
Hot  Springs,  Va.,  July  13,  1917. 

My  Dear  Children: 

I  was  deeply  touched  by  your  letter  to  me 
about  the  play  ground  in  the  park.  The 
happiness  of  older  people  is  largely  dependent 
on  you,  so  when  you  are  enjoying  yourselves 
everybody  shares  in  your  pleasure.  When  I 
was  a  boy  in  Peekskill  from  seventy  to  eighty- 
three  years  ago,  we,  the  boys  and  girls  of  that 
time,  got  what  we  could  out  of  the  woods, 
fields  and  streets.  We  enjoyed  ourselves  because 
of  the  wonderful  adaptation  of  young  people 
to  then*  conditions,  but  we  would  have  been 
happier  if  the  better  things  of  today  had  been 
provided  for  us.  Each  generation  finds  itself 
sharing  in  the  advantages  of  progress  and  dis 
covery,  and  I  am  glad  that  the  things  we  missed 
are  coming  to  you.  I  remember  when  the 
village  newspapers  announced  as  an  event  worth 
recording  in  the  social  column  that  a  young 
married  couple  had  taken  a  honeymoon  trip 
to  Buttermilk  Falls  or  Lake  Mahopac,  each  of 
them  within  twenty  miles.  We  had  no  rail 
roads  here  then,  while  now  it  is  as  easy 
to  go  to  Niagara  Falls  as  to  either  Butter- 
[4011 


AT   FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

milk  Falls  or  Lake  Mahopac.  "  All  work  and  no 
play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy  "  is  a  very  old  saying. 
I  have  found  by  experience  that  one  helps  the 
other  and  if  you  are  faithful  in  both  you  grow 
better  spiritually,  morally,  mentally  and  phys 
ically.  When  you  work  do  your  best  and  when 
you  play  enter  into  it  with  heart,  mind  and  body. 
I  thank  you  for  your  letter  and  hope  sometime 
I  may  meet  you  on  the  play  ground. 

Cordially  yours, 
CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW. 


402] 


Tribute  to  Dr.  Charles  E.  Fitch. 

New  York,  January  15,  1918. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Post-Standard, 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.: 

For  more  than  half  a  century  I  was  in  inti 
mate  personal  and  official  relations  with  Charles 
E.  Fitch.  During  his  career  as  a  journalist  I 
met  him  frequently,  and  we  were  for  many  years 
regents  together  of  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  He  was  noted  for  his  devotion 
to  the  duty  imposed  on  him  or  which  he  assumed 
with  untiring  industry  and  great  ability  and 
wisdom.  He  met  and  discharged  the  many 
responsibilities  of  an  unusually  active  and  use 
ful  life.  He  never  lost  a  friend  and  rarely  made 
an  enemy,  though  positive  in  his  opinions  and 
frank  in  their  expression.  His  rare  geniality,  his 
consideration  for  others,  and  the  honesty  of  his 
convictions  won  the  friendship  and  esteem  of  all 
who  were  fortunate  in  knowing  him.  As  jour 
nalist,  educator,  author  and  citizen  his  was  a 
long  and  illuminating  career. 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW. 


403] 


Letter  from  President  Woodrow  Wilson,  in 
Appreciation  of  Speech  delivered  before 
the  Pilgrims  Society,  January  23,  1918. 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 

Washington, 

26  January,  1918 

My  dear  Mr.  Depew: 

May  I  not  express  my  warm 
appreciation  of  the  generous  speech  you 
delivered  last  Wednesday?  It  is  such 
speeches  that  clear  the  air  and  contribute 
much  more  than  the  present  sort  of 
criticism  and  cross  purpose  can  to  real 
advance  of  the  cause  of  liberty  through 
out  the  world. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Woodrow  Wilson 

Hon.  Chauncey  M.  Depew 

27  West  54th  Street 

New  York  City 

NOTE — The  speech  referred  to  in  the  President's  letter  wil 
be  found  on  page  315. 


404 


Letter  sent  to  Mr.  Louis  Seibold,  Toastmaster 
at  the  Dinner  given  to  Mr.  Edward  G. 
Riggs  by  his  Friends,  April  6,  1918. 

Dear  Eddie  Riggs,  we  love  him.  The  senior 
of  many  associates,  the  youngest  of  them  all. 
Prince  of  optimists  and  flayer  of  frauds.  No 
railroad  problem  is  too  deep  for  him  and  no 
political  mystery  escapes  his  revealing  psy 
chology.  Every  gathering  is  cheerier  and  hap 
pier  for  his  presence.  He  would  think  it  a 
waste  of  first  class  material  to  die  for  a  friend, 
but  he  would  rescue  him,  heal  his  wounds,  kill 
his  enemies  and  laugh.  Among  good  fellows 
the  best  of  the  gang.  Give  him  my  love. 
Faithfully  yours, 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW. 


405 


Letter  of  Sentiment  to  the  Rippey  Bible  Class, 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  Geneva,  N.  Y. 

New  York,  April  19,  1918. 

Mr.  W.  A.  Gracey,  President, 
My  dear  Mr.  Gracey: 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  respond  to  your 
letter  asking  for  a  sentiment  to  be  read  at  the 
twenty-first  anniversary  of  your  Bible  Class 
on  the  evening  of  April  23rd. 

I  cordially  congratulate  the  class  upon  attain 
ing  this  age.  For  an  American,  it  is  a  most 
interesting  period,  he  steps  at  once  from  tute 
lage  to  sovereignty.  New  duties  and  respon 
sibilities  devolve  upon  him  by  law.  He  becomes 
under  equal  suffrage  one  of  the  governors  of  his 
village,  State  and  country,  if  he  fails  to  act  and 
to  act  intelligently  he  is  guilty  of  treason  to  the 
greatest  of  trusts  which  will  ever  come  to  him 
in  life.  It  is  both  a  cowardly  and  an  ignorant 
statement  which  is  frequently  made  that  one 
vote  counts  little  among  such  a  multitude. 
There  are  numerous  instances  where  one  vote 
has  decided  an  election  and  determined  a  policy 
of  government,  but  the  young  man  who  appre 
ciates  this  privilege  and  responsibility  when  he 
casts  his  vote  does  more  than  deposit  his  ballot. 
Behind  that  vote  is  his  personality  and  his 
character. 

[406] 


LETTERS    AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

A  Bible  Class  makes  for  character  in  a  very 
large  way.  One  who  is  worthy  of  its  member 
ship  and  has  absorbed  its  lessons  is  a  better 
citizen.  He  is  more  likely  to  influence  others 
to  adopt  his  views,  and  his  teaching  will  in 
cline  him  to  right  views.  There  never  can  be 
any  doubt  where  the  Bible  Class  student  will 
stand  where  morality  and  liberty  are  concerned. 
Every  Congressman  and  Judge,  every  Governor 
and  President  has,  from  his  first  vote  and 
appreciation  of  its  duties  and  responsibilities, 
risen  to  leadership  and  then  been  selected  by  his 
fellow  citizens  to  administer  their  government. 
The  American  citizen  never  faced  such  respon 
sibilities  as  are  before  him  now.  The  princi 
ples  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence  have 
gone  all  round  the  world.  They  have  liberal 
ized  every  government  except  Germany,  Austria 
and  Turkey.  In  immortal  words  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  said:  "We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident — that  all  men  are 
created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness;  that  to  secure  these  rights  govern 
ments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
then-  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed."  These  principles  are  the  ones  which 
are  at  stake  in  this  most  frightful  battle  of  all 
history.  Autocracy  is  determined  to  crush 
out  in  the  world  the  preaching  and  the  practice 
[407] 


AT  FOURSCORE   AND   FOUR 

of  the  principles  of  our  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence.  This  involves,  if  successful,  a  return 
to  medieval  conditions.  It  destroys  all  that 
has  been  accomplished  by  so  many  sacrifices 
during  the  centuries  for  humanity,  civilization 
and  liberty.  From  the  principle  that  all  men 
are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights 
and  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pur 
suit  of  happiness,  the  world  turns  back  to  the 
old  motto  of  authority  that  most  of  the  world 
are  created  with  saddles  on  their  backs  and  bits 
in  their  mouths  and  the  privileged  few  booted 
and  spurred  to  ride  them.  If  this  battle  is 
lost,  which  is  now  going  on  day  by  day  with  such 
fearful  slaughter,  France  will  be  crushed,  Eng 
land  cowed,  Russia  and  its  millions  in  men 
and  endless  resources  annexed  and  the  struggle 
transferred  to  our  own  shores. 

America  is  awake,  its  fresh  resources  are  to 
go  in  constantly  increasing  volume,  justice  and 
liberty  are  to  win,  the  ability  and  power  of  any 
nation  to  make  war  is  to  be  forever  ended  by  a 
league  of  nations  strong  enough  to  compel 
peace. 

The  day  of  your  anniversary,  April  23rd, 
completes  my  eighty-four  years  of  life.  It  is  the 
eighty-fourth  anniversary  of  my  birth.  I  grad 
uated  from  Yale  University  sixty-two  years 
ago  and  have  led  since  a  life  of  intense  activity. 
It  has  brought  me  in  contact  with  most  of  the 

F4081 


LETTERS   AND    LITERARY    CONTRIBUTIONS 

people  worth  knowing  in  the  world  and  given 
me  the  inestimable  privilege  of  seeing  history 
in  the  making  during  the  most  important  of 
periods.  I  have  had  my  ups  and  downs,  good 
fortune  and  bad  fortune  in  full  measure  both 
ways.  My  mother  was  a  rigid  Presbyterian 
and  Calvinist.  She  was  a  very  brilliant,  able 
and  wise  woman.  When  great  and,  as  I  thought, 
fatal  losses  had  come  to  me,  she  gave  me  this 
philosophy:  "  My  boy,  you  will  find  that  what 
you  think  are  your  greatest  misfortunes  are 
simply  the  discipline  which  the  Lord  gives 
you  and  they  will  prove  your  greatest  bless 
ings."  This  is  a  hard  doctrine  to  believe, 
especially  when  the  blow  comes,  but  my  experi 
ence  has  demonstrated  its  truth.  This  is  a 
mighty  good  world  to  live  in  and  the  people, 
take  them  as  they  come,  a  mighty  good  sort 
to  live  with. 

With  best  wishes  for  your  Class. 
Faithfully  yours, 

CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW. 


[409] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'D  v- 


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